Buena Park Rejects Elaborate Complex

Buena Park city leaders on Tuesday turned down a proposed $50-million complex including what supporters say would have been the nation’s most lavish Hindu temple, a 20,000-square-foot structure of golden walls and spires visible from a nearby freeway.

At a tense, crowded public meeting, the Buena Park City Council voted to oppose zone changes necessary for the project to proceed. Council members cited overwhelming opposition from residents and concerns that the project would not fit in the city’s “entertainment corridor,” a stretch of Beach Boulevard that includes Knott’s Berry Farm and the Movieland Wax Museum.

“This might disrupt things up and down the street,” Councilman Gerald N. Sigler said.

At least 150 residents filled the City Council chambers to raise objections over traffic, parking and conflicts with the city’s Western image.

After the meeting, backers objected that they had been ambushed. City officials did not warn them the council might vote on the issue, said Michael Sieverts, vice president of a real estate investment company that is helping a Los Angeles-based Hindu group with the project.

The City Council “essentially voted to not even negotiate with the Hindus,” Sieverts said. “That’s not fair. This was just supposed to be a study session. . . . We didn’t even get a chance to offer a formal proposal.”

Proponents of the project said Tuesday they hope to return to the city with a new plan, but have not yet developed a clear idea how to overcome council opposition.

The controversy revolves around a proposal by the Los Angeles area chapter of an international Hindu sect, Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. The group wants to buy a convention center and bowling alley near the intersection of Beach Boulevard and the Riverside Freeway. Its plans call for renovating the convention center for use in worship services and other events and construction of the temple nearby.

Members of the organization hope to make the Buena Park structure rival its London temple, the largest Hindu temple outside India.

Bharatsinh Zala, coordinator for the India-based Hindu sect proposing the temple, said the temple would serve many of the estimated 200,000 Hindus in Southern California.

Proponents of the project envision a soaring edifice that would grace a city. “This would be a monument that this city could be proud of,” Zala said.

To satisfy city leaders who hope to generate bed-tax revenue from the site, leaders of the Hindu organization proposed to build a hotel and keep a portion of the 237,000-square-foot convention center open to the public for weddings, meetings and other events.

A city study found the site unsuitable for a large hotel, and hotel companies such as Marriott and Hyatt have showed no interest. But Tuesday, council members contended it is too early to rule out such a use for the site.

“There’s a window of opportunity here for this property” that the city should save for a large hotel or similar use, Councilman Steve Berry said.

To make the deal more palatable to the city, which must approve a zone change to allow a religious institution in a commercial zone, the Hindu sect proposed to build a 100-room hotel. They pointed out that the city’s own study indicated a small hotel would be more likely to succeed than the larger hotel plans city officials had in mind.

But it would be an uneasy partnership, a compromise of hotel and temple: In keeping with the group’s religious beliefs, no meat, fish, eggs or alcohol would be served in the facility, limiting its uses.

“The limited diet could discourage their current clientele . . . by catering to their own, and that could be a problem,” said Gail Dixon, president and CEO of the Buena Park Chamber of Commerce. “But on the flip side, Buena Park already has some outstanding banquet facilities. So perhaps, if this particular institution [were] built, maybe it would . . . attract a specialized market and that could be a good business decision for the community.”

Experts say there is indeed increasing demand for facilities catering to Hindu culture in the United States.

“There’s a renaissance of Hinduism in America right now,” said Shukavak Das, a Hindu scholar and head priest of the Lakshmi Narayan mandir, or temple, in Riverside. “Organizations from all over India are building temples in American cities as fast as they can.”

The Swaminarayan Hindu sect is leading the blitz of Hindu temple construction in the United States and Europe, Das said. The organization owns 17 temples in the United States and dozens around the world. The London temple is especially elaborate, built with almost 3,000 tons of limestone and 2,000 tons of marble.

“They are a first-class Hindu organization and Buena Park should be taking this thing with open arms,” Das said. “It would bring a lot of business. If they do what they did in London, it will be . . . an architectural monument.”

To residents at Tuesday’s meeting, however, the proposal offered only the prospect of traffic, noise and crowds.

“I really am opposed to this huge facility. . . . It’s out of character with our city,” resident Ruth Walp said.

“I cannot see any reason why we need this big temple, this big dome,” said resident Rose Glenn, who has lived around the corner from the site for 39 years.

“We don’t need this, we don’t need the traffic. . . . I believe we ought to keep Buena Park a small town--we don’t need these people from other countries” to bring in revenue, Glenn said.

A small number of temple backers who were present at the meeting objected that some of the opposition was based on ethnic prejudice.

“It’s basically out of ignorance and fear, and not based on fact,” Zala said. “A different community moving in, a different faith moving into the neighborhood.”

The traffic objection “is a smoke screen. Regrettably, that’s what this is,” said Donald W. Wise, president of Wise Hotel Investments Inc., which is acting as an intermediary for the Hindus with the city.

Other temple proposals have run into similar trouble in Orange County. In 1997, Yorba Linda turned down plans by a Buddhist group to build a 20,000-square-foot monastery. City Council members cited concerns about traffic in a residential area.

Times staff writer Elaine Gale contributed to this report.

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Spiritual Vision

A Hindu organization with branches all over the world hopes to build an elaborate temple and hotel complex on a Buena Park site now occupied by a convention center, bowling alley and athletic club.

Source: Wise Hotel Investments Inc.