A divided Escondido City Council narrowly approved a plan to build a Hare Krishna temple and 10 homes on a 24.5-acre site in a neighborhood at the northern end of the city.
After hearing from more than 50 speakers and receiving written comments from more than 100 others, the council members split 3-2 on the vote, with Mayor Dane White and Councilmember Joe Garcia voting against the item.
Both White and Garcia said they think more work needs to be done to ensure minimal impact on the neighborhood before the project moves forward.
“I really don’t have an opposition to you, the temple, the project,” White said. “My issue specifically is that, just as you have rights, so do the people around you, and I’m not convinced there was enough study to adequately address the mitigation that is probably needed.”
The council chambers were completely full, and people were also in an overflow room, as 30 speakers spoke in favor of the project and 24 asked the council to reject it. In addition, people submitted written comments with about 90 asking for approval and about 20 in opposition.
ISKCON of Escondido, a group tied with the international Hare Krishna movement, is planning the project on a site it owns near the intersection of Rincon Avenue and Conway Drive in a rural part of northern Escondido.
“We looked for years to find this land. It meets all of those criteria in our tradition,” said Badrinarayan Swami, regional director of ISKCON. “It has long been the desire … to build a traditional Hindu temple as a gift to our future generations, something we can be proud of.”
The project is slated to include a 11,767-square-foot temple building and 10 homes along with a farm, cow pasture, flower garden, dining hall, book shop and classrooms.
Many residents near the site expressed concerns about the project, mostly focused on traffic and fire safety. Several said they didn’t think the studies done on the impacts to the neighborhood were accurate or enough.
“To be clear, this is not about religion; it’s about public safety, transparency and compliance with California law,” said Debbie Korn, who lives near the project site.
The project is a smaller version of a temple that has been planned for more than 25 years. The Escondido City Council approved a conditional-use permit in 2000 for a 32,000-square-foot cultural center at the site after nearly four hours of public testimony. The project was never constructed and the permit expired a few years later.
Escondido resident Neha Prasad stressed how much the people on both sides of the debate have in common.
“The values of our temple teach kindness, honestly, compassion, non-violence, service, and responsibility,” she said. “But these aren’t Hindu values. These are the same values that make up all of our faiths and the community of Escondido that I was raised in.”
The vote Wednesday was to approve three items related to the project: a final environmental study, a conditional-use permit, and a development agreement. It will allow the project to move forward, but isn’t the final approval required. The developer must also submit grading, building and off-site improvement plans to the city for further review and pay development impact fees.