:LOL: Slow your role, compadre. You and are are, geneally speaking, on the same side. Your complaints are not completely without merit but I fear you risk falling into the trap on the nanny statists.

If the noise of these prayer meetings is a problem, then cite the home owner for noise abatement or otherwise disturbing the peace. Do not abbrogate the 1st Amendment.

If the attendees at these prayer meetings are creating excessive trash, cite them with littering. Do not violate the 1st Amendment.

If the attendees at these prayer meetings are illegally parked or tresspassing on private property to park then cite them for those offenses. Do not trample on the 1st Amendment.

These "whackos" are not doing "whatever they hell they want," Red, they are doing what the 1st Amendment guarantees them the right to do.

The 1st Amendment doesn't guarantee they can do it where ever they want. I am concerned without some level of zoning you have a tremendous degradation of property values and quality of life as demonstrated in many communities that fail to do it properly. There is a science and an art of city planning that isn't simply "nanny meddling", it really does make a difference. Have you never played Sim City?

Without proper zone enforcement you have things degrade to 3rd world country levels, like illegal alien "clown houses" where 50 people will live in one house. Normal zoning laws restrict the number of families living in a house.

You couldn't possibly give out enough tickets to stop a tidal wave of degrading community standards. You need to set and keep standards.

Speaking with authority on local issues, the proper process here would be a conditional use permit. This process is designed to address not normal situation at a very low cost yet the process is public and requires the participation of all parcel owners within 350 feet (our code). The rational for this process is to give all parties input to concerns so these concerns can be mitigated. This permit process cant be denied but, it can place conditions on the operation for all the obvious reasons like not having the prayer start when buses are picking up school kids or using a local lot for over flow parking. Many times this process is used to publically let neighbors know what is actually going on next door which often is half the concerns. If we are talking 200 people in a 1 bedroom house the use can be required to move the function for safety reasons. if this is 8 people meeting on sundays at someones house for bible study, constitution protects that and the past posters are correct in saying local ordiances still must be followed like parking etc.

If this was 8 people I can't believe it would've ever come on the radar, unless they were making burnt offerings in the back yard and inquiring among their neighbors for virgin girls.

You haven't actually attended church in awhile, huh?