WESTMINSTER : Planners Send Back Protested Project

The Planning Commission last week voted unanimously to refer back to the developer a proposed project that has stirred opposition from residents who protest the location.

Half a dozen residents spoke against the Temple Village project Wednesday, arguing that the 70 units proposed will increase traffic problems on already congested Bolsa Avenue.

“I think it’s an innovative concept, but I see additional chaos happening in the area with traffic,” resident Robert Weimer said.

The project, the first of its kind in the city, will be a commercial center with living quarters above each store. The concept is similar to the Old World Village in Huntington Beach.

But the proposed project targets the city’s large Vietnamese community, with its French Colonial architecture intended to resemble a street in Ho Chi Minh City.

The three-story units will have underground parking, four bedrooms and sell for about $325,000.

The focal point of the village will be a traditional Asian temple, used for private meditation purposes only.

A warehouse now sits on the 6.3-acre lot, behind the Asian Village Shopping Center, and is surrounded by residential, industrial and commercial areas.

Phillip Anthony, a spokesman for the developer, said they will try to meet the commission’s suggestions to rework the traffic circulation and create an open space play area.

In a related action last week, the City Council voted 5 to 0 to rezone the site from commercial-industrial to residential-commercial after hearing from five residents speaking against the project’s density.

The developer is proposing half as many units as are allowed under the new zone. But most of the opponents said that single-family housing should be constructed in place of the condominium-shops proposal, arguing that it would result in fewer problems with traffic, crime and noise.