TWO years ago the Diocese of Trenton approached a conservation group based in Princeton Township with a land-use proposal that was both benevolent and self-serving.

Enacted by Congress to "protect religious liberty and for other purposes," it says municipalities must be able to show a "compelling" public interest in rejecting land-use proposals by religious groups.

The City Council has the final say on the land-use proposal.

In the most recent charter revision, in 1989, boards were given first crack at new land-use proposals and the authority to develop blueprints - albeit, nonbinding - for their communities' future.

In the future, Mr. Kwartler imagines city officials and members of local community boards taking home videotapes overnight to review the implications of the latest land-use proposal.

Questions of Democracy The land-use proposals are being opposed passionately by people divided into two camps.

The agonizing is not new, but the matter has a sudden urgency because of land-use proposals before the City Planning Commission.

The recommendation represents a significant change from the charter commission's earlier plans, and came in response to wide-ranging criticism of its land-use proposals.

The net result, said proponents of the newest plan, would be that almost every zoning and land-use proposal could, at least potentially, be reviewed by the Council.

These are text or map changes in the city's zoning law, changes in urban renewal plans and all comprehensive land-use proposals.