Stafford County, VA

In May 2015, the All Muslim Association of America (AMAA) purchased a property on Garrisonville Road zoned for cemetery use. However, in December 2016, the Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted to change the county’s cemetery ordinance to effectively prohibit the Muslim cemetery. AMAA was not notified of the ordinance change until the fall of 2017, which launched a U.S. Department of Justice investigation regarding religious discrimination in April 2018. Two separate lawsuits against Stafford County were then filed by AMAA and the DOJ until a settlement approving the cemetery was finally reached in September 2021, ending a six-year conflict.

Ryan Wang

2016

cemetery on 29-acre plot of land with a maximum of 15,000 grave sites

On September 25, 2021, Stafford County supervisors agreed to settle AMAA’s lawsuit. The county agreed to pay AMAA $500,000 and approve its cemetery. The Justice Department announced on October 14, 2021, that it would dismiss its lawsuit against Stafford County.

In May 2015, the All Muslim Association of America (AMAA), a nonprofit religious organization that provides low-cost burial and funeral services in the metropolitan region of Washington, D.C., purchased a property on Garrisonville Road in Stafford County, VA, with the desire to construct a large cemetery with up to 15,000 burial plots. AMAA’s Muslim cemetery on Brooke Road in nearby Fredericksburg, VA, had been operational since 1996, but there were not enough plots for future burials (Branscome, 2018, Apr 25). As a result, AMAA wished to build a new cemetery in Stafford County, as it allowed cemetery use “by right” in A-1 Agricultural Zoning Districts, which did not require review by the county’s Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors (Davis, 2017, Sep 20).

In June 2016, a resident near the proposed cemetery site emailed then-Rock Hill District Supervisor Wendy Maurer, expressing concern about the impact on his well water (Baron, 2021, Sep 25). Stafford legislative affairs officer Anthony Toigo wrote to Maurer that as long as there were at least 100 feet between the homeowner’s well and the cemetery, it would not pose a risk to public health. The next day, Crystal Vanuch, a Planning Commission member and a cemetery site neighbor, emailed Maurer, suggesting a meeting with the county attorney to draft a new cemetery regulation for the Planning Commission to review.

On November 9, the Planning Commission unanimously voted, 6-0, to recommend the adoption of a new ordinance banning cemeteries within 900 feet of public drinking sources of private wells, nine times the limit required by the Virginia Department of Health (Baron, 2021, Sep 25). The ordinance was unanimously approved by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, 7-0, on December 13. In addition, any new cemetery proposal must go before the county’s Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors (Davis, 2017, Sep 20). While churchyard cemeteries, which are typically smaller than the proposed Islamic cemetery, and family graveyards were excluded from the ordinance, county officials said they did not consider the AMAA site to be a churchyard cemetery because the group did not intend to have a mosque on site (Olivo, 2020, Dec 2). The ordinance change was unbeknownst to AMAA, which made its final payment for the property in April 2017 (Baron, 2021, Sep 25). AMAA was not informed of the new ordinance until the fall of 2017 (ibid.).

In April 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into whether Stafford County violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) by blocking AMAA’s proposed cemetery (Branscome, 2018, Apr 25). Despite the investigation, the Planning Commission met on May 23 to unanimously vote, 6-0, to leave the cemetery ordinance in place, saying the stricter requirements would protect public health (ibid.). In a highly unusual vote without all of its members present, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2, with one abstention, on September 18 to keep the ordinance (Branscome, 2018, Sep 18). In December 2018, AMAA requested a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals to confirm its cemetery complied with Health Department regulations and would not be within 250 feet of any residence or 200 feet of any private well (Baron, 2020, Oct 15).

In June 2020, AMAA announced it was suing Stafford County over its changes to the cemetery ordinance, alleging it prevented the nonprofit from being able to use its land by “imposing new and scientifically unsupported minimum distance requirements between AMAA’s cemetery and certain surrounding water sources” (Muslim Group Sues, 2020, Jun 8). Additionally, AMAA claimed that Stafford County had a history of discrimination against Muslim communities. In its complaint, AMAA describes a different Muslim group, AsSalam Memorial Garden, LLC (AMG), which had requested the construction of a small Muslim cemetery around August 2015. AMAA alleged that Stafford County did not consider the group’s cemetery as a “churchyard” and rejected AMG’s proposal because an ordinance required that perpetual care and endowed cemeteries be a minimum of 25 acres. Ultimately, AMG did not establish a Muslim cemetery in Stafford County.

Following AMAA, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the county on June 19, claiming the ordinance “has no legitimate health justification, imposes a substantial burden on the association’s religious exercise, and is not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest” (Feds sue Virginia, 2020, Jun 19). In response, county officials met in August to reduce the setback from private wells to 656 feet (Baron, 2020, Oct 15). In October, the Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 to rescind the ordinance (Olivo, 2020, Dec 2). The next month, Stafford County supervisors settled the lawsuit filed by AMAA, agreeing to pay them $500,000 and approve the cemetery (Baron, 2021, Sep 25). The DOJ dismissed its lawsuit against Stafford County on October 14 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2021, Oct 14).

On October 15, 2021, it was reported that construction was set to begin on the cemetery (Kellner, 2021, Oct 15). According to AMAA’s website, the cemetery is under construction and is over 70% completed as of March 2023. AMAA plans to purchase an additional thirty to fifty acres of land between Ashburn and Manassas, VA, to construct another cemetery.

References

• Baron, J.S. (2020, October 15). Stafford supervisors will consider repealing latest cemetery provisions. Fredericksburg.com. Web.
• Baron, J.S. (2021, September 25). Stafford supervisors vote to settle costly Muslim cemetery case. Fredericksburg.com. Web.
• Branscome, J. (2018, April 25). DOJ launches investigation into Stafford’s handling of a proposed Muslim cemetery. Fredericksburg.com. Web.
• Branscome, J. (2018, September 18). Stafford leaders vote to maintain cemetery ordinance amid DOJ investigation. Fredericksburg.com. Web.
• Davis, K. (2017, September 20). Planning Commission likely to revisit new cemetery ordinance after changes shut out Muslim cemetery. Available through NewsBank.
• Feds sue Virginia county over law blocking Islamic cemetery. (2020, June 19). Associated Press. Available through NexisUni.
• Kellner, M. (2021, October 15). Stafford County settles federal discrimination lawsuit, allows Muslim cemetery in Fredericksburg. The Washington Times. Web.
• Muslim Group Sues Virginia County for Blocking Construction of Religious Cemetery. (2020, June 8). Muslim Advocates. Web.
• Olivo, A. (2020, December 2). Changing Virginia County faces discrimination charges over Islamic cemetery. The Washington Post. Web.
• U.S. Department of Justice (2021, October 14). Stafford County to Allow Islamic Cemetery in Response to Justice Department Lawsuit. United States Attorney’s Office. Web.

June 13, 2024