Church says FDOT reneged on land deal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -

If you travel downtown there's no way you can miss the Overland Bridge project.

The purpose is to improve traffic flow along the Interstate 95 corridor just south of the Fuller Warren Bridge.

The Florida Department of Transportation is widening I-95 but to do so the department had to buy surrounding properties.

One of those properties is a church -- and now that church is suing because officials feel the FDOT isn't giving them what they deserve.

The Glorious Bethlehem Temple has been around for 50 years, but now the congregation is worried about its future. Officials said the FDOT needed their property for the Overland Bridge project and said it would compensate them, but now the church said the FDOT is going back on its word.

It's an injustice. It's not favorable. It's not fair to the church, said Glorious Bethlehem Temple Pastor Donald Richardson. You don't put somebody out there and tell them you are going to do this, that and the other, and then once you get them out, all the sudden, your plans change, you don't need us anymore.

Richardson has attended the church since 1978. He said he's shocked with what's happening.

FDOT representatives notified the church it intended to acquire all of the church's property, and the church would be cared for through federal relocation assistance and fully compensated.

But now the FDOT said it doesn't need the property, leaving the church in the middle of a construction zone. That's why the church is taking legal action.

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Church says FDOT reneged on land deal