Posted on 09/02/2020 6:11:43 PM PDT by marshmallow
Grace Community Church has held a lease from the county on a section of their parking lot since 1975. Now, after winning in court the right to hold worship services, the organization received an eviction notice.
LOS ANGELES, California, September 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A lawyer for a California Christian megachurch is calling out Los Angeles County for terminating a 45-year-old parking lot lease, saying the county’s deed is an act of “retaliation” for the church fighting to win the right to worship after challenging “unreasonable” state coronavirus health orders.
"Los Angeles County is retaliating against Grace Community Church for simply exercising their constitutionally protected right to hold church and challenging an unreasonable, unlawful health order,” said Jenna Ellis, special counsel to the Thomas More Society, who represents Grace Community Church as legal counsel in a statement sent to LifeSiteNews.
“In America, we have a judicial system to ensure that the executive branch does not abuse its power, and Grace Community Church has every right to be heard without fear of reprisal. The Democrats’ message to Americans is clear — if you don’t bow to every whim of tyranny, the government will come after you.”
Grace Community Church has held a lease from the county on a section of their parking lot since 1975. A letter dated August 28 from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works gives them a total of 30 days to “vacate” the area by October 1.
“If Grace fails to vacate the premise as required, the District may enter the premises and remove Grace's personal property in accordance with the Agreement and applicable law, and Grace will be responsible for any resultant expenses incurred by the District,” reads the lease termination notice letter from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
What a sick piece of excrement that city is!
Sorry, Los Angeles COUNTY is!
They need to go full Gandhi and have 1000 parishoners squatting on the parking lot. They can’t arrest them all...
The terms pety and sore loser come to mind. So do a few others that no matter how much LA deserves them I don’t think the moderators here would let slide.
L.A. county officials are small puny human beings.
Try EVIL . . . I think it describes them perfectly.
Especially during the past few weeks during this, I’ve been watching this church service and it is one of the finest you will find.
The Pastor, John MacArthur, is well know and loved and respected in Christendom
He has been a pastor for many many years....and a pastor of this church over 35 years
His congregation love him...
..the music is outstanding....
What the authorities are doing is wrong on so many levels
If they get away with closing this big church.....
.....they will come for yours next
They are already coming for us......
Democrats are the lowest form of scum.
“If Grace fails to vacate the premises as required, the District may enter the premises and remove Grace’s personal property...”
Armed confiscation? This is truly despicable Nazi stuff.
A mass sit-in fully videoed & uploaded may be their only recourse.
My cell phone won’t let me open the link to the letter. What are the grounds for the eviction?
It’s going to come to the point where these government attackers will have to be dealt with like a rat infestation...
No grounds have been given for the “eviction”. According to the rental agreement in force for the past 45 years, either side may terminate the lease with 30 days notice to the other.
However, several due process arguments come to my mind. When the lease was granted 45 years ago, did it require a resolution by the County Board? If so, shouldn’t termination of the lease also require a resolution by the County Board with the applicable public hearing and time for comment? Does the amount of revenue involved in the contract require Board action?
The property being leased appears to be in a floodplain. Floodplains are generally covered by watershed plans. Has there been a formal revision to the watershed plan to support this change in land use? What was the purpose and need for the change to the watershed plan, if one was made? Were the stakeholders of the watershed, including the church, given an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes to the watershed plan? Were the procedures in the California Environmental Quality Act followed? Is the church being treated equally with other lessors of land in the watershed? Is the church being treated equally with other lessors of County land generally? If the County is not proposing a change in land use, do they have a new lessor who has agreed to pay more than the church to use the parking lot? Was the church given the opportunity to match or better the offer from any other party wanting to lease the parking lot?
Unless these and other questions can be answered properly, the actions of the County appear to be arbitrary and capricious. Disclaimer: I am not an attorney.
Didn’t the legislature or the Governor just make it illegal to carry out evictions? 8>)
It is called retaliation. Government officials can openly retaliate and get away with it.
President Trumps executive order on evictions should stop this action.
Is this the area over by the wash?
He has been a pastor for many many years....and a pastor of this church over 35 years.
Actually 51 years
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