Church Sues Over Land-Use Dispute

An Orange County megachurch filed lawsuits Tuesday claiming Cypress was trying to halt its building plans in favor of businesses that would provide the city with tax dollars.

The legal actions, filed in federal and state courts, are the latest salvo in a 15-month land tussle between Cottonwood Christian Center and the city over 18 acres of prime real estate in a redevelopment area near Los Alamitos Race Course.

Cottonwood is one of a growing number of faith-based institutions nationally that are employing a religious land-use act passed by Congress in 2000 to fight city impediments to the free exercise of religion.

“The act clearly protects the rights of churches to be able to build and expand when they feel called to do so, absent any health and safety concerns,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which provides legal assistance to Christian causes. “[The Cottonwood] case will be an important case.”

In the Cottonwood lawsuits, the church seeks unspecified monetary damages along with the right to develop six adjacent parcels of land it purchased in 1998 for $13 million.

The nondenominational church wants to build a complex at Katella Avenue and Walker Street that would include a 4,700-seat sanctuary, a preschool, a bookstore, a coffee shop, meeting facilities and a youth center. The church, whose weekend services attract 4,000 and are broadcast to 50 countries, has outgrown its 2.4-acre facility in neighboring Los Alamitos.

City officials said the church doesn’t fit with their redevelopment plans, and they would prefer to see tax-generating businesses on the property, such as retail stores and restaurants.

For more than a year, city and church officials have sought a compromise, including a move to an adjacent piece of property.

“We’ve negotiated in good faith for a long time,” said the Rev. Mike Wilson. City officials said they haven’t seen the lawsuit but will continue to work with the church.

“Cottonwood is doing what they need to do, in their opinion, to protect their legal remedies,” said David Belmer, the city’s community development director.

In the lawsuit, Cottonwood accuses the city of a variety of discriminatory practices that violates state and federal laws by “treating private religious institutions on less than equal terms with nonreligious institutions, and by depriving Cottonwood the ability to fairly and adequately secure a place to assemble for conducting religious worship.”

The church also alleges that city officials, in negotiating a deal that would place the church on an adjacent piece of property, demanded “voluntary” payments from Cottonwood in lieu of the property taxes that churches are exempt from paying.