Fla. church battles eminent domain
Terry Sheridan reports on the Daily Business Review:
. . . Broward officials want to take the church-owned property at 330 SW 27th St. and combine it with nearby county-owned land to create a new home for county-run drug abuse and sexual assault treatment centers. Christian Romany Church Ministries, which bills itself as the only one of its kind in the country, doesn’t want to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars already spent on improvements and has nowhere else to go, Pastor Dan Tennis said. But the county has offered to pay the church $1.6 million — $500,000 more than the church paid for the property in October 2005 — and has suggested several replacement sites, said assistant county attorney Tony Rodriguez. Tennis thinks the property, which includes a school building, is worth at least twice what the county has offered.
The church, after losing the eminent domain case in Broward Circuit Court last year, appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal last month. A decision is pending. The church’s case turns on religious freedom, not money. At the heart of Christian Romany’s fight for its property is the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The 1998 act requires government officials to show a compelling state interest before taking any action that might burden the exercise of religion. The law applies to any government action in the state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida’s Web site . . .