After 18 years of stops and starts in the planning process, construction work has begun at a Buddhist temple on Richmond’s Highway to Heaven.
But the original plan to expand LingYen Mountain Temple has been reduced by half.
In 2014, the proposal was to expand by almost 200,000 square feet and the temple was asking to build into the farming portion of the property – encroaching more than 300 feet into the “backland,” which is supposed to be actively farmed.
The plans have been pulled back, and the expansion will about 94,000 square feet and won’t encroach into the agricultural area.
Highway to Heaven runs on No. 5 Road from Steveston Highway to Blundell Road and is located in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). It was created to allow religious institutions to build facilities for worship with the stipulation that the easterly side – the “backlands” – are farmed.
Many of these religious institutions also include schools, something that will no longer be allowed on "assembly" zoned properties in the ALR.
In fact, Pythagoras Academy, a private school in Richmond, bought a property on the Highway to Heaven and applied to the city about two years ago to rezone it to build a new school there. This was rejected by city council because the property is zoned for “assembly,” allowing religious facilities.
City council has recently passed bylaws banning any future schools on “assembly” properties that are located in the ALR.
Parking, building height, residences reduced in temple plan
While the building expansion at the LingYen Mountain Temple has been reduced by half, parking has only been reduced by 15 per cent.
There will be 385 new stalls in a parking structure, down from 456 originally proposed.
The “Main Buddha Hall” will be 90 feet high; however, this is 14 feet lower than originally planned.
There will also be fewer nuns and monks living on the property. Originally, the plan was to have 147 people living there with the capacity to host 152 retreat participants.
Now it’s expected to have 60 nuns and monks in residence and between 10 and 70 retreat participants.
The City of Richmond issued a construction permit to LingYen Mountain Temple in late June, after which they held a purification ceremony to mark the beginning of the temple’s expansion.
