This doesn't just involve churches of course. Governments/states/cities do this all the time. In most cases this is legal for state projects like highways etc... but not to obtain the land for private developers. In Norwood, Ohio they are currently trying to buy the land for a private developer which is not legal so they have declared the neighborhood as a blight in order to make it legal. The neighborhood is not a blight. Out of about 90 home owners most have agreed to sell at 125% of current value.
The remaining holdouts are trying to fight the city in court. This does seem like theft to take the property of private owners and give it to a private developer. Norwood stands to gain an additional one to two million dollars a year in taxes if they can force the home owners out.
Quote:
NORWOOD, Ohio - On Atlantic Avenue, two visions of the future are on a collision course. The city of Norwood sees an upscale mall and apartment complex here. But Joy and Carl Gamble see the rest of their lives in the house they bought 35 years ago.
“It's my home. It's my only home, the only home I ever had,” says Joy.
“We've got a little castle,” says Carl.
Joy Gamble says there is no amount of money that could get her to move.
But it may not be theirs much longer. The city has ordered them to leave by February 3 after buying 99 homes and businesses to make way for the mall and declaring the neighborhood "deteriorating." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6891224/
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Many owners in the neighborhood wish to sell, but rather than building on that property, the developer demands the entire neighborhood or none of it.
The Institute for Justice represents the property owners who wish to stay in this landmark challenge to the City’s bogus “blight” designation of the neighborhood and the City’s misuse of eminent domain in the area.
