February 6, 2006

Riverside Church says Caltrans underpaid for its Land
A church that has served the deaf community for half a century in Riverside is fighting for survival more than two years after Caltrans evicted the congregation and demolished the improvments to make way for new ramps on Interstate 215.

Per the Los Angeles Times, church leaders say the $1.4 million they got from the state is less than a third of what they need to build or buy a facility equal to the one lost in September 2003. Pastor Tom Mather says he has looked at 35 to 40 sites, all of which were unsuitable or too expensive.

Church attorneys allege that Caltrans used outdated sales information to apppraise its property, ignored condemnation procedures and broke promises to help find the congregation and new site. According to the Times, the situation has been complicated by Southern California's superheated real estate market.

A Caltrans spokesperson says of the church, "they received every benefit that could have applied, we have been more than fair." John C. Murphy, an Irvine attorney who represents Calvary Deaf Church, said the church complex was worth at least $4.6 million when Caltrans acquired it. Murphy said he would seek, in addition to the $3.2 million difference between their value estimate and the amount received, damages because of escalating construction cost, rising real estate values and the loss of good will. A key issue is whether the church property should be reappraised to reflect replacement cost, because Caltrans might not have taken the proper legal steps when they condemned the property.

Murphy said Caltrans improperly appraised the church and set aside money for the purchase well before filing an eminent domain complaint and receiving necessary approval from Riverside County.

Using an August 2002 Appraisal, Caltrans determined the church was worth 1.4 million and deposited the amount with the state treasurer in April 2003, according to cut court documents, Murphy said Caltrans received an order to condemn the property from the Board of Supervisors on May 20, 2003, court records indicate the Caltrans filed the eminent domain action about two months later. Murphy says they got it all backward. "They did things you are not supposed to do".

What was unusual about the appraisal, Murphy said "was that Caltrans developed 30 scenarios with values between $700,000 to $2.3 million. Court records state that some of the sales data used for the valuations were from 2000 and 2001, and sworn statements by the appraiser indicate that "he did not know what the property was worth." Caltrans denies doing anything improper, nothing, they say was filed out of sequence. "The $1.4 million paid to the church was based on the best information available at the time," Caltrans has since demolished the structures.