Cypress, California set to grab church land, give it to CostcoMay 28, 2002
A city in California's Orange County is poised to do what few if any municipalities
in the United States have ever done: use the government's power of eminent domain
to seize a church's property so that it can be given instead to a large commercial
retail company. The Cypress City Council is scheduled to vote to finalize the
land grab at its meeting tonight.
The land—an 18 acre parcel near the Los Alamitos Race Track—is
in a "redevelopment" area of nearly 300 acres that has been largely
vacant for decades. The city had done little to attract commercial activity
to the area until Cottonwood Christian Center took an interest in it in 1999.
The church, which has outgrown its present facility a short distance away in
Los Alamitos, spent more than a year and $13 million to acquire a half dozen
individual parcels that now constitute the site for a new facility to serve
the church's rapidly growing congregation.
The story of how Cypress officials used subterfuge, delay and stunningly unethical
tactics is an extraordinary account of abuse of governmental power and cavalier
disregard of basic constitutional rights.
In October 2000, Cottonwood filed an extensive application for a Conditional
Use Permit ("CUP"). A few weeks later, the city rejected it, using
a supposed paperwork deficiency as an excuse (it later admitted the paperwork
had been complete). A few days later, he City Council then adopted a moratorium
on any new permit applications in the area.
The moratorium lasted more than a year, during which the city secured interest
from Costco. In April, it began eminent domain proceedings to take the property
from the church and transfer it to Costco.
Cottonwood filed suit in federal court against the City of Cypress in January,
charging violations of the U.S. and California Constitutions, and of the Religious
Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 ("RLUIPA").
Cottonwood Christian Center is represented by the law firm of Sheppard Mullin
Richter & Hampton, and The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is now assisting
the firm on constitutional and federal legal issues. Additional information
and court documents can be found on The Becket Fund's web sites: www.becketfund.org
and www.rluipa.com , as well as on the church's web site: www.cottonwood.org
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