City Report Spurs Debate on Church’s Planned Expansion

A voluminous draft environmental impact report was released Thursday on a controversial expansion project proposed by the Self-Realization Fellowship for its church headquarters in Mt. Washington, a hilly enclave several miles northeast of downtown.

The $40-million proposal has evoked strong passions among proponents, who contend that the church’s plan would not negatively affect the almost rural nature of Mt. Washington, and opponents, who contend that the plan’s magnitude would destroy it.

The city’s release of the 516-page report, with more than a dozen appendixes, was eagerly anticipated because it starts a 120-day public comment period on the proposal.

The report suggests solutions to potential problems related to the project, such as noise, traffic and the potential for landslides.

“We now have the facts, contained in the report, to talk about,” said church spokesman Miles Hyde. “We’re willing to listen because we want to be a good neighbor.”

The church is seeking a conditional-use permit to allow for the construction over a 30-year period of a museum, additional office space, classrooms, counseling facilities, underground parking and more living quarters for cloistered monks and nuns who live at the church’s hilltop headquarters in the old Mt. Washington Hotel.

The church also seeks to reinter at its headquarters the remains of the church founder, Paramanhansa Yogananda, who died in 1952. His remains are at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale.

The worldwide nondenominational church, which blends Eastern and Western philosophies, has been headquartered in Mt. Washington since its founder purchased the hotel in 1925.

Disagreement over the proposal has dominated the environmentally conscious community of 8,000 residents since members of the Mt. Washington Assn. voted in January 1998 to direct their board members to remain neutral on the project until the membership voted on the matter.

Some saw the move as an attempt to silence the association, which was formed in 1955 to fight a plan to put a city dump there. Church supporters and others disagree, saying it was unwise to take a position when the church’s plans were not fully known.

Although it is the major topic of conversation in Mt. Washington, the project has hardly been discussed at association meetings since the 1998 vote and was not even mentioned on the association’s Web page.

Now, with the environmental report available for public scrutiny, it appears that many groups, including the association, will hold forums to discuss the plan.

Hyde said the church will stage the first of several public forums June 1.

An advisory group to City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who represents Mt. Washington, will sponsor discussions.

Dan Wright, president of an organization opposed to the expansion, said it is likely that his group will also hold forums.

Wright and other opponents reserved substantial comment on the report because they had not yet read it.

Longtime Mt. Washington activist Clare Marter Kenyon, however, said, “If the [fellowship’s] 30-year expansion plan size remains the same, then it cannot fail to have a devastating effect on the quality of life the majority of residents moved to Mt. Washington for.”

By summer, after the comment period on the draft report ends, a final report on the project’s impact will be issued. The project still must face scrutiny by city authorities before any construction can begin.

Hyde said it may be several years before any work can begin.