Zoning Exemption For Religious Groups Converts 'Apostles' of Animal House

When your dad can shell out $2.4 million for your student housing, and you've been admitted to a selective university, you're not going to let a zoning regulation cramp your style. In a leafy residental area of Georgetown, where no more than six unrelated people are allowed to share a home, neighbors vow a legal challenge if nine college students are granted religious status as the "Apostles of Peace and Unity."

Recognition as a religious group would allow the students to house as many as 15 people. "William Skelsey, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Georgetown who says he has 1,000 students in his district, said [the owner's son] told him explicitly that the Apostles were formed to deal with the zoning restrictions and keep together a group of friends who have lived together since freshman year."