Filipino Church Battling to Keep Its Property from Being Condemned
by Allie Martin
March 23, 2006
(ChristiansUnite.com) - - A California church is weighing its options after city officials move ahead with plans to condemn the church in order to build condominiums.
Last week the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency board voted unanimously to condemn the Filipino Baptist Fellowship building to make room for an affordable housing project. The church purchased the property in 2002 just as the city was placing it in a redevelopment zone.
City officials claim they have offered the church more than fair market value for their property, including 13 other properties as possible relocation sites, but church members say they have established ministries in the area and that it would be too costly to move. The Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at The Claremont Institute is representing the church, trying to stop the condemnation of the property. That group says although the city claims it wants to work with the church to find a suitable alternative location, "it has still not demonstrated why it needs to take the existing church in the first place."
The next step would be for the city attorney to file a complaint to condemn the property. In the meantime, Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in nearby Buena Park, is rallying support for the Filipino congregation.
"The church has said 'thanks, but no thanks -- we don't want a bigger piece of property; we don't want a more expensive piece of property; we don't want to move,'" says Drake. "It is a Filipino community church; they do not restrict it to Filipinos, but the majority of the people are ... from the Philippines."
The congregation, he notes, has decided that "to move ... to a more expensive piece of property or ... to a better property ... would be detrimental for their church."
The decision of the Redevelopment Agency Board could be challenged in court. If so, it could be a long court battle -- one that Drake believes could eventually end up before the highest court in the land.
"We're banking on taking this case all the way back to the Supreme Court," the Baptist pastor admits, "and we're hoping that not only will this church be saved, but we're hoping that we'll be able to overturn [an earlier Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain] .... We think this case will be the case that will take this back to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court will then rule that a city cannot take a church just because of financial benefit [to the city]."
Last summer the Supreme Court ruled that cities could seize property if the move would benefit the entire community. Drake contends the church's chances before the high court would be improved with the additions of Bush appointees John Roberts, who is now chief justice, and Samuel Alito since that ruling took place.
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