The following article appeared in the February 17 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
City staff got a hostile reception at a public planning meeting for a controversial southside domed Sikh temple in a rapidly growing upscale residential neighbourhood.
“It’s a huge change for all of us. I’m against that building — period,” Monica Paredes said to applause from many of the crowd of several hundred at the Salvation Army Citadel.
The Guelph Sikh Society is applying to rezone greenfield land on Clair Road originally slated for a nursing home to allow for a 2½-storey, 18,000-square-foot, multi-domed temple with a capacity for 400 worshippers served by parking for 169 vehicles. Another public meeting is slated for March 1.
Tuesday’s city-sponsored meeting was intended to clear up any misconceptions, but the animosity in the large meeting room was palpable, including a suggestion of political consequences for councillors who approve the development.
“Anybody supporting this will be making a career-limiting decision,” said Glenn Carducci. He revealed he’s one of the creators of a new anti-temple website (www.stop-the-temple.info), whose recently formed group mailed flyers to 2,469 homes in the vicinity of the temple. The group circulated a petition at the meeting opposing the rezoning.
Carducci said in an interview the temple is too big for the neighbourhood; parking is inadequate; the proposal contravenes the Official Plan’s intention of small institutional use; and better sites should exist in the city.
Opposition is growing through the website’s appeal for help, Carducci said.
“We have a lot of volunteers now.”
Audience members kept stressing they feel the temple will dominate the suburban neighbourhood and not blend in.
“I think the biggest problem is people don’t really understand how we operate,” Guelph Sikh Society vice-president Dr. Ravi Rai told them. He said the modestly-sized temple will only be used Sundays, and occasionally Saturdays, for worship services and, occasionally, other society events.
He also stressed it would be open to the broader neighbourhood to use as a community centre at other times, similar to some Christian churches.
But audience member Stacy Cooper said that while residents pay taxes and follow bylaws as they exist, the temple proposal doesn’t follow the official plan and puts stress on road capacity in the area, while contributing no taxes to the city.
“It’s a sore point for a lot of us,” she said.
City senior development planner Katie Nasswetter explained that planning regulations do allow for changes in developments, provided they meet general planning guidelines.
“Planning documents are not static,” Nasswetter said.
But she and manager of development and parks planning Scott Hannah noted there is a planning process in place that calls for more public input and staff recommendations in the near future before the fate of the proposal is decided by city councillors. Ultimately, there’s also an appeals process to the Ontario Municipal Board.
“The purpose tonight is to share information with the community,” meeting moderator Cathy Downer, a former city councillor, said.
A man in the audience wanted to know why Sikhs were focused so strongly on the Clair Road site.
“The Sikh community has been looking for sites … a number of sites,” Sikh Society lawyer John Valeriote responded.
But Carducci said that a temple would strain sanitary sewers and other city services.
“There isn’t an issue with capacity of the sewers,” Hannah said, noting services will be studied by staff in the days ahead.
Carducci predicted, to clapping and cheering, that neighbourhood roads will prove inadequate. Others raised questions about the esthetic appeal — or potential lack thereof — of a domed temple in a modern Guelph subdivision. Still others wondered whether the temple will draw not only local Sikhs, but Sikhs from other surrounding communities that don’t have such temples.
Hannah said staff will compare temple esthetics to similar structures in other cities, but don’t study from how far afield temples draw worshippers.
Valeriote said ultimately a temple is no different to a community than a church.