Several years ago, a property owner in the Town of Mamakating in upstate Sullivan County, New York, proposed to convert the property, which had been used as a day spa, into a mikvah, which is a bath-like structure used for cleansing, bathing and purification in certain Jewish religious practices. The property was located within an area designated as a Village Center zoning district, and the town's zoning law permitted property in this district to be used for, among other things, "[n]eighborhood places of worship."