A ‘Land Blessing’ Tactic in Turf Fight

More than 500 church members converged Sunday afternoon on a sprawling asphalt--and controversial--empty lot in Cypress: race track on one side; tall, corporate buildings on all the others.

Just for a little extra insurance on the 18 acres they own, members of the Cottonwood Christian Center lifted their eyes and palms heavenward and asked God to bless the land--and the Cypress City Council.

For two years, the 4,000-member church has been buying up property, parcel by parcel, at the intersection of Katella Avenue and Walker Street. They’ve spent millions acquiring the land and drawing up plans for a licensed preschool, conference rooms, a bookstore, coffee shop, youth center and worship center.

But when they presented their plans to the city, council members said the plans were incomplete and later imposed a moratorium on all projects in that redevelopment area. The city wants to see the land developed for commercial use.

Now, the church and city are at a stalemate. The church has filed an objection to the moratorium and has lawyers working on the issue. Sunday, they stepped up the rhetoric during what they called their “land blessing.”

“Some people feel that world-class shopping is more important than world-class people,” said Pastor Bayless Conley, the church’s founder whose sermons are broadcast nationally on the Fox Family Channel and internationally in more than 80 countries. “I don’t think there’s a higher or better use for this piece of property.”

Several in his congregation expressed their agreement.

“I’m hoping that [the City Council] would just see beyond money,” said Lucinda Wong of Cypress. “There’s a lot of lives changed by our church.”

Tyrone Hill of La Palma said: “This is God’s property that he provided for us. We pray that we’ll have favor with the city of Cypress.”

Cypress Mayor Anna Piercy said that church leaders knew when they bought the land that there was no guarantee they would be granted a permit. She said she even warned them it would be a gamble.

Project planner Mel Malkoff said it was “reasonable” for the church to buy the land and expect to be granted the permit, particularly since there were no existing plans for development and the land has been vacant for at least a decade.

Even so, this is prime real estate. Piercy said it’s one of the largest remaining undeveloped parcels in northwest Orange County.

“We are trying to get it developed into something that would be a good tax base for the city,” Piercy said. “It’s a redevelopment area that we would hope to develop into a restaurant area and entertainment center.”

She added: “We are not against churches in Cypress, not at all.”

It boils down to money. “If they can show me somehow that they would return to the city’s coffers the amount of money that we think we could lose by their taking over the property,” Piercy said, she’d be more inclined to allow them to build their new church.

Conley and others argue that even though the church does not pay any property tax or bring in sales tax, it brings thousands of people into the community each week who would eat at local restaurants and shop at nearby stores.

More than that, though, Conley said the church benefits the community by reducing crime, getting homeless people off the streets, and providing support to single mothers.

“This is much more than brick and mortar,” Conley said. “We just want to help people. That’s just what the church is about.”