Then you are mistaken. It is already being done. There is a case now where a growing church was seeking property on which to build a new church. Over the period of several years they acquired several pieces of adjoining real estate as they came up for sale or the owners were persuaded to sell. Before the church could start building, some greedy developer got the local government to condemn the property so that he could make a large amount of money and the local government would not lose the tax base of the property.
God's house will be bulldozed for Donald Trump's house because Donald Trump will pay more taxes to the government.
i agree it is being done today.
this court case gives them solid legal ground to stand on so churches won't even be able to fight it in the future.
No, don't be ridiculous. This happens all the time where a church in a neighborhood wants to build a giant facility, and it's unfair to the people who live around it to have to deal with the traffic and noise. I would vote against it in my neighborhood, too. Churches, especially growing churches, need to find land that is similar to corporate land. It's common sense.
Most of your facts are correct, but you left out 'the rest of the story'.
In Cottonwood Creek Christian Center v. City of Cypress, the City wanted to take the land that the church had assembled so that Costco could build a warehouse store on the site. After a federal court had enjoined the condemnation (in August 2002), the parties settled (February 2003), with the city agreeing to let the church build on another site in the area and with the Church selling the tract that Costco wanted.
So the RLUIPA did serve to protect the church from the abusive seizure by the city.