The Lord giveth, costco taketh away?

TownHall.com ^ | 8/14/02 | Maggie Gallagher

[kattracks]

Maybe, as the song says, they can pave paradise to put up a parking lot, but can a city grab church land to erect a Costco? Cypress, Calif., apparently thought so.

Quite shamelessly this spring, city officials announced plans to condemn the Cottonwood Christian Center's land because they preferred the taxes Costco would generate to the souls the Cottonwood might save. Last week, in an unprecedented victory for religious liberty and private property, a federal judge stepped in and said to the overweening Cypress city council: Not so fast, buddies.

In an unprecedented federal injunction preventing the city from exercising the power of eminent domain, Judge David Carter affirmed that "Costco wants it" is not a sufficiently compelling state interest to override the First Amendment or the Fifth Amendment. "The framers of the Constitution might be surprised to learn that the power of eminent domain was being used to turn the property over to a private discount retail corporation," he noted wryly. As Kevin J. Hasson, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (who argued the case personally) summed up afterwards: "(M)ost cities know better than to seize a house of worship's property. Cypress made a big mistake, and we hope that cities across the country learn from their mistake."

The judge's decision leaves the Cypress city officials, who acted as if they owned the place, with serious egg on their faces. The judge swatted down the two reasons city lawyers offered to defend seizing church property: How can a city with a 25 percent budget surplus claim it cannot get along without the tax revenues? The city's other claim -- that the land was officially designated a blighted area -- was equally absurd: "Assuming that removing the blight from the Cottonwood property was a compelling state interest, the city could eliminate the blight simply by allowing Cottonwood to build its church," Judge Carter riposted. An attractive worship complex (in an area zoned for churches) with day-care center, meeting rooms, youth gym, coffee shop and bookstore is not exactly a slum. Surely Cypress city officials do not need a federal judge to tell them churches are not a blight upon the land?

What is amazing to me, in looking over the record, is the absolute arrogance of the Cypress aristocracy. Even after Judge Carter's stinging reproach, Cypress Councilman Tim Keenan had the nerve to tell the Los Angeles Times that the council hasn't gotten enough credit for its big-hearted willingness to "take the church into our community, and we are willing to take more than 18 acres off our tax rolls." Apparently he think the right of Americans to worship and associate freely is some magnanimous dispensation granted by the gods of the local zoning board.

Councilmember Anna Piercy also has had problems seeing the light. She told the News-Enterprise in a May 15 story, "They're waging a holy war trying to make it a religious issue, and it's not that." You are telling a church it cannot worship on its own land and that is not a religious issue? "We just don't want them taking our prime development land," she explained. Whose prime development land, Ms. Piercy? This mind-set resonated with at least one Cypress citizen who wrote to the News-Enterprise: "Cypress has more than enough churches now. ... I'm behind you 100 percent. Don't even let that church move into our city."

I am sure most citizens of Cypress reject the notion that local politicians have the right to control what churches are "allowed" into any American city. Last time I checked the Constitution, religious liberty was a civil right, as fundamental as free speech to a free society (which is why the right is part of our very First Amendment).

Otherwise the rule in too many Cypresses apparently would be: The Lord giveth, and Costco taketh away.

Contact Maggie Gallagher | Read her biography

©2002 Universal Press Syndicate

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Valin]

Ping.

[holyscroller]

"We just don't want them taking our prime development land.

I'll bet it wasn't "prime development land" when the church bought it. If it was so prime, why didn't the city or Costco buy it back when it came up for sale before the church bought it. This bunch of boobs needs to be voted out of public office PERMANENTLY! What arrogance, and I'm ashamed Costco would stoop this low.

[lewislynn]

It doesn't say much for Costco either.

How can a city with a 25 percent budget surplus claim it cannot get along without the tax revenues? ....Tax collectors in these times with a 25% surplus doesn't sound like a bunch of tax and spend liberals.

Given the love and worship by "conservatives" for corporations and profit at any cost, it would be difficult to say what party affiliation these people have.

[Valin]

Where I first heard about it.

Costco vs. the church

---

Posted: June 5, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com


The scent of Dairy City has turned sour.

The city of Cypress, Calif. – originally named Dairy City when it formed in 1956 – condemned 18 acres belonging to Cottonwood Christian Center last week, in order to convey the land to Costco.

Cottonwood Christian Center is the spiritual home to more than 4,000 families. It bought the land in Sept. 1999. The property was then permitted for a 108,000 square foot office building, though the zoning in place did allow for church uses. The city staff told the church that it preferred retail on the site, but the church went forward with its $14 million purchase.

The city's position is blunt: It wants the tax revenue that Costco will bring.

The church will not be cowed. In January of this year, the church launched lawsuits under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. The city added insult to injury when it lowballed the church on the value of the property. Although the property was appraised at $17.9 million this spring, the city has told the church that it will be paid $14 million.

To get a glimpse of the deep, bureaucratic ethic that controls the city, ponder the "Mission Statement" and "Vision Statement" that are touted on the city's website: "The city of Cypress, in partnership with the community, will maintain and enhance a safe, attractive and sustainable environment in which to live work and play," and "The vision of the city of Cypress is to be an outstanding family-oriented community and premier business center."

My guess is that the 47,000 citizens of Cypress didn't know they had a mission or a vision. And I am certain they did not know that their city would become internationally famous as representative of hostility to faith and governmental greed.

Law professors from the left and right agreed on my radio program last week that Cypress had gone too far – too far in distorting what a "public use" was, since a "public use" must accompany a condemnation. They agreed as well that if, as appears to be the case, the city had targeted a particular church, then the First Amendment's Free Exercise clause had been violated as well. We never made it to the new federal law designed to prevent such outrages. In short, the city appears to have one heck of a malpractice suit against its legal advisers when it gets walloped in the courts. Citizens who will get left holding the bill ought now to be asking to see the legal opinion analyzing the city's tactics. Again, my guess is that none was asked for, and none was volunteered.

I spent four hours fielding calls from my radio program from coast-to-coast when I discussed this seizure. A Cypress city councilman called to defend the action. When he began whining about being the victim, I let him have it. Petty tyrants complaining that they aren't understood are both offensive and mind-bogglingly obtuse.

The Wall Street Journal chastised Costco the very next day, as had hundreds and maybe thousands of e-mail defenders of religious freedom. As threats of cut-up Costco cards flowed into HQ, Costco hunkered down and produced a masterpiece of dissembling that met the classic requirement of a defense lawyer, the superstore equivalent of "It's not my dog. It didn't bite you. And besides, you kicked it first." Costco disclaimed responsibility and claimed support for the church's efforts to find a new site, but did not foreswear buying the 18 acres. "If we don't buy it, someone else will," was the bottom line. In short, the warehouse store guys are hanging tough. They want the land.

So this is why American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are fighting and dying a half-world away: To make the country safe for tin-horn councilman-bullies and avaricious super-stores – not the right of a free people to join together and worship their God as they understand Him.

Perhaps the Cypress City Council and the Cypress city staff are not anti-Christian, just dense. They have talked themselves into a corner, and now find themselves on the receiving end of a large and growing wave of disgust. Legal bills will follow. So will defeat.

The first rule of holes for someone who wants to get out of one is: Stop digging.

Stop digging, Cypress and Costco. Give the church its permits and show up for a love fest when the blue-ribbon is cut.

Hugh Hewitt is an author, television commentator and syndicated talk-show host of the Salem Radio Network's Hugh Hewitt Show, heard in over 40 markets around the country.

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

[alphadog]

"but can a city grab church land to erect a Costco?

Ahh "Redevelopment" the unkown government...able to grap land for others private use.

[LiteKeeper]

Bump

[alphadog]

"but can a city grab church land to erect a Costco?

Ahh "Redevelopment" the unkown government...able to grap land for others private use.

[Nick Danger]

Costco should not be allowed to buy only one church. If they buy one, they should have to buy six of them.

[fporretto]

Please see also:

Comparative Obscenity

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[FreedomPoster]

ROFLOL! On a pallet!

[Harrison Bergeron]

Heh heh... and all the same denomination... no mixed lots.

[mikeb704]

I know several gals who worship at St. Costco's nearly every Sunday.

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp