Hindus’ Plan for Temple in Norwalk Encounters Unfriendly Neighbors

To 30 Hindu families scattered from the Southeast area to the Westside, the San Gabriel Valley to Orange County, the temple they want to build on a busy Norwalk thoroughfare would be a dream come true.

“We would have a place of worship. Our deity would be installed in one place, and we would not be roaming,” said Natoo A. Patel, a Diamond Bar resident who heads the Hindu group that formed a decade ago and has been meeting in private homes and rented halls ever since.

But a vocal group of homeowners who would become the temple’s neighbors say that if the $1.2-million project is built beside two Christian churches on Pioneer Boulevard, the Hindus’ dream would become their nightmare.

They cite the cost, publicity in a regional Indian newspaper and the distinctive design of the temple and worry that worshipers would flood their quiet neighborhood.

“This would be a West Coast monument to his (Patel’s) brand of Hinduism in our neighborhood,” said Jim Honodel, who for 30 years has lived a block away from the proposed temple site at Pioneer and Ferina Street.

“He swears up and down he only has 30 (families) and all they want to do is worship God,” Honodel said. “Why spend (that amount of money) to come to a residential neighborhood for only 30 (families) to worship? It’s a lot bigger than he’s letting on.”

Claiming that the critics do not understand Hinduism, Patel said the temple would serve a specific branch of the religion, which worships Lord Swaminaraya as its god. He said services are conducted in the language of the Indian state of Gujurat, where the temple members are from, and other Hindus would not frequent the temple because they would not understand what was being said.

“We are not missionaries, we never try to convert people,” said Patel, adding that it has taken the group a decade to grow to 30 families with about 80 people. He does not expect the total membership to exceed 300 people for another 10 years.

The temple project, which goes to the Norwalk City Council today, has brought new turmoil to a neighborhood that early this year won a fight to ban Sunday adult soccer at a nearby adult school. The residents had expressed worries about noise, traffic and excessive drinking.

For some, the temple has become a question of credibility, and for others an issue of discrimination.

Critics have accused Patel of being deceptive about the size of the temple. “We don’t believe they are the only people of this sect,” said Charles West, a trustee of the neighboring Church of Christ, which opposes the temple. “Lots of Indians have moved to Artesia and Cerritos.”

But those who support the temple contend that the project is being opposed because of racism. Carol Savely, who has lived across the street from the proposed site for 35 years, said that in a neighborhood meeting in December, there was talk about being “inundated with Indians.” One woman asked if they planned a crematory, a reference to Hindu funeral rites in which the dead are cremated. No such plans exist.

In testimony before the Norwalk Planning Commission, which rejected a conditional-use permit application for the project, the Rev. Nyal Royse, pastor of the Church of Christ, called the temple with its Indian domes a “grotesque monstrosity” that would be incompatible with the neighborhood.

“If someone referred to my church as a grotesque monstrosity, I would feel very offended,” said Savely. “These folks are American citizens. I happen to be a very devout Christian, but the fact that I an a Christian does not give me a right to deny someone else their rights.”

But temple critic Stephen Wood said non-residential development, not ethnicity, is the issue. “We don’t want a liquor store there, a body shop there, a garage there, a stereo shop there, and we don’t want a church, whether Catholic, Protestant, or Nation of Islam, or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu. It’s always been residential and before that, agricultural,” he said.

Patel said he thought his temple would be “right in the line” with the existing churches, which even temple critics say do not bother the neighborhood. But critics argue that the situation is different because unlike the 1950s-era churches on Pioneer, the temple would be on a corner that directly borders the neighborhood.

Savely, however, rejects this argument. “When you live on Pioneer Boulevard, you live on a freeway,” she said. “Why can the Mormon Church enter and exit their property and not cause problems and the Church of Christ do it with no problems, but the Hindus would cause problems on the same street? It’s very hard to figure out.”

The Planning Commission initially favored the project, which had been recommended for approval by the planning staff. But in refusing to grant a conditional-use permit, commissioners cited neighborhood opposition and fears that temple traffic and parking could harm the neighborhood.

Commissioner Jim Sweet, who originally supported the temple, said that as hearings progressed he became concerned about future expansion. “That question never really seemed to get addressed,” he said.

Former Commissioner Judith Brennan, who was elected to the City Council in April, said she was concerned about “commuter churches” to which people come from a wide area. For a time, a church elsewhere in Norwalk drew worshipers from a wide area and caused a severe traffic problem.

Patel was clearly taken aback by the commission decision, saying that the project met Norwalk city codes. Before purchasing the land for $630,000 last year, he said, the group was told by the city that the temple could be built with a conditional-use permit.

Patel pointed to a study paid for by the group, which concluded that traffic could be readily handled and that the 92 parking spaces that the temple will provide are more than adequate.

The temple had already scaled down its plans to meet neighborhood criticism, he said. The architecture, which was to have included elaborate Hindu carvings, was toned down. The temple reduced its maximum allowable capacity from 531 people to 320 and said that under conditional-use permit controls the city could shut the facility down if it exceeded that number. All temple access was confined to Pioneer.

But critics have not been satisfied. “This isn’t a religious, cultural or social issue,” said Honodel “ Our position is that we’ve had enough of non-residential-use impact on adjoining neighborhoods.”

Said Patel, “We are willing to cooperate with the city and the community. We have shown that in the last five to six months we are willing to compromise. There’s got to be a way to build this temple.”

Temple Plan The Norwalk Planning Commission, responding to complaints from neighbors, has turned down a request to build a Hindu temple near Pioneer Boulevard. An appeal is under way.