Long Beach Church Faces Eminent Domain Thanks to Kelo

After the Kelo decision was handed down by the Supreme Court, I wrote a piece on how Kelo could be used to take over church properties in an attempt to boost the local tax base. That very thing is now happening in Long Beach, CA (h/t Hugh Hewitt):

At its March 13, 2006 hearing, after extensive comments from the community about the public good that a Church provides to the community, and after CCJ Director John Eastman noted that the record did not contain any evidence supporting a finding that condemnation of the Church was necessary to redevelopment of adjoining property, the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board voted 6-0 to condemn the Filipino Baptist Fellowship Church in order to make way for more condos. Although the City still claims to want to work with the Church to find it a suitable alternative location, it has still not demonstrated why it needs to take the existing Church in the first place.

Our Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence is representing the Church to try to stop the condemnation.

Does this look like a blighted church?