Downtown church decided to sell to Google amid fear of eminent domain
“Fears of displacement as Google charges forward with its mega-campus in downtown San Jose started to become a reality late Tuesday night.
Members of Templo La Hermosa, a church located at 56 S. Montgomery St., asked the City Council for approval to move their church to 2222 Trade Zone Blvd. – an area that’s primarily zoned for jobs and industrial activities. But the church has nowhere else to go – it’s being forced to move after 70 years and attempts to relocate elsewhere have been unsuccessful and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And Pastor Erasmo Zuniga revealed Tuesday for the first time that the decision to sell the church land came out of fear that San Jose would invoke eminent domain on the property.
Church leaders have been in talks with Google over their land, which neighbors public property the tech giant purchased from the city last year for its new campus. While county records show that the sale has yet to be finalized, Zuniga said that Google was waiting for the church to settle on its new home before sealing the deal.”
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Hase, Grace. San Jose Spotlight 11 April 2019.