The City Council has to consider the economic well-being of the town as well as the desires of a growing church. That industrial building in an industrial zoned area may be vacant now, but all this comes as there’s a strong push to turn the East Bay into the “Green Industrial Corridor” with new businesses and light industry planned for all manner of technologies in the growing green tech market. The city would receive no tax revenue and few new jobs from a relocation of the church, vs. a potential boon from having a vibrant industrial tax base in the near future.

For the church to file under the “Religious Land Use” federal act, claiming that the city is stifling their religious freedom by not letting them swell to be a (for San Leandro, certainly) MEGA church is just Faith Fellowship understandably trying to make the best of a poor real estate decision.