May 27, 2004
A California city faces a possible lawsuit after it used eminent domain to prevent a church from relocating to a downtown area.
Recently the Restoration Church inked a deal with a landowner in Visalia, California, to purchase an old downtown theater for its new worship center. The church had outgrown its current worship center. But last week, Visalia City Council members used eminent domain to take the property, ensuring that the church could not complete the purchase.
The city claimed it wanted to preserve the current use of the property, which was being leased by a children's theater group. But the sellers of the theater had given that group a right of first refusal to purchase the property -- and when the children's playhouse declined, the sellers offered the property to the church.
Restoration Church contacted the Pacific Justice Institute, a California-based legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties. PJI president Brad Dacus says the city is abusing its authority.
"[The power of eminent domain is] supposed to be used for times when the city is going to build or expand a road or build a hospital or a school -- but not simply to keep out a church that they don't want to be there," he says.
Dacus explains that the church was in escrow to purchase the theater property. "The city has no right to come in at the last minute and steal it away from them," he says, "especially when the current tenants already had a chance to purchase it and declined."
According to the attorney, cases such as that in Visalia are common, citing a similar case in Orange County, California. In that situation, a church secured a preliminary injunction against the City of Cyprus when the city attempted to use eminent domain to take property the church had purchased.
Dacus says cities sometimes respond in this fashion simply because they do not appreciate churches. "They are hostile to churches in places like the West Coast and other communities," he explains. "This is a growing problem -- and that's why it's so important that we lay hold to our rights under the law to be able to build, grow, and expand our churches as God calls us to."
The PJI president says legal action against the city is possible and likely. He says his firm is examining all of the possible legal causes of action, including a lawsuit based on violations of the church's constitutional rights and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
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Pacific Justice Institute (http://www.pacificjustice.org)
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