Application of Volunteers of America

Volunteers of America, Inc., and Curtis M. French (Volunteers) applied to the Board of Adjustment in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for a special exception1 to a zoning ordinance.2 They wanted to set up a prison pre-release center in an existing building in a district zoned “Commercial High Intensity” (CH). Prison inmates would be rehabilitated at the Center during the last few months of their prison term, so they would *551be better equipped to re-enter Tulsa society after their release. Volunteers, a charitable organization similar to the Salvation Army, has pre-release centers in several cities across the…