Thai Temple Members Continue Educational Outreach As Neighbors Appeal ZAB’s Approval of Temple Permit

For Immediate Release, May 14, 2009

Contact: Virada Chatikul (510) 725-9549 savethethaitemple@gmail.com

[Berkeley, CA] On April 7, 2009, three complainants submitted an appeal of the City of Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approval of the Wat Mongkolratanaram Thai Buddhist Temple Broader Land Use Permit. The appeal requests that the City Council reconsider the ZAB 6-to-3 vote in approval of the Temple religious activities.

In the appeal, complainants state that the Temple Sunday activities are overtly detrimental and constitute a chronic nuisance that negatively impacts the value of the properties immediately adjacent to the Thai Temple.However, the appeal fails to bring new considerations that have not already been addressed by the ZAB findings in previous hearings. The ZAB concluded that there were minimal traffic, noise and odor impacts to surrounding residents and that the Temple posed no detriment to the health, safety, peace, morals, comfort and general welfare of the neighborhood. Though the Temple has been practicing its religious activities for over two decades on Temple grounds, the appeal ignores the religious nature of the Sunday Food Offering and makes a blanket assertion that it is not a religious service or accessory rite to a religious institution, It also reiterates the complainants desire for the Temple to decrease the frequency of the Sunday Food Offering when the Temple has already reduced its service by fifty percent. In addition, it makes additional requests such as moving the Sunday activities to an off-site location, asking the City to repeat neighborhood impact studies already conducted and lowering the height of a proposed Buddha sanctuary whose height is already within City limitations for religious structures. The appeal suggests that the Temple religious practices should be curtailed, reduced, and compromised to the point that the Temple religious freedom is threatened.

In response, Temple members continue their public outreach campaign on the Theravada Buddhist tenet of merit-making that is practiced during the Sunday Food Offering and its centrality to Thai Buddhist teaching. The Sunday Food Offering tradition is an essential part of the Thai Buddhist religious practice of communal food sharing, giving Buddhists an opportunity to earn merit by providing their time, service, food and donations to the monks and to the Temple. The Food Offering tradition and the generous donations of its participants, also allow the Temple to sustain its facilities, host five resident monks and two visiting teachers annually, and maintain its Thai Cultural Center. Siwaraya Rochanahusdin, a Thai American who grew up at the Temple, is spearheading the efforts to save the Temple. She said, The Temple offers an invaluable range of services to an otherwise underserved population. Discontinuing the weekly food offering would deny this community access to spiritual and educational opportunities not readily found elsewhere.

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A City Council hearing is slated for July 2009 where the Council will decide to accept the appeal or reaffirm the ZAB decision in support of the Temple.

Wat Mongkolratanaram is located at 1911 Russell Street in Berkeley, California. For more information please contact savethethaitemple@gmail.com or call Virada Chatikul at 510.725.9549. Additional information can also be found at savethethaitemple.com and www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning.

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