Hindus in Richmond Hill oppose 14-storeys near Ganesha Temple at Bayview and Elgin Mills

“For Hindus, the most important thing is the tower has to be seen from a far distance"

Yorkregion.com
June 26, 2019
Sheila Wang

As long as the Hindus can see the temple, they can pray.

Richmond Hill resident Rathy Ponnampalam worries that the Ganesha Hindu Temple on Bayview Avenue would become invisible from afar as highrise condos have been proposed in the neighbourhood.

Flipping through The Liberal on May 23, Ponnampalam was flabbergasted to see a public notice about the proposed development at Bayview Avenue and Elgin Mills.

“Oh my God! Are 14-storeys coming here?” said Ponnampalam, a pious Hinduism devotee who has frequented the temple for decades.

Richmond Hill council was considering raising the maximum building height from 10 storeys to 14 storeys at a vacant lot near the temple and a public meeting was scheduled a week later to receive comments, the notice reads.

Two 14-storey mixed-used apartment buildings are planned for the northeast corner of the busy intersection, together with 97 townhouses of varying heights along the two major roads, according to the proposed development.

The two corner towers are expected to be as tall as 153 feet, far exceeding the Ganesha Temple which is about 72 feet at the highest point.

“For Hindus, the most important thing is the tower has to be seen from a far distance as you come around,” said Kidambi Raj, a senior member of the trustee board of the Hindu Temple Society of Canada.

Raj who attended the public meeting with other concerned citizens on June 19 said he was appalled at the fact that the developer came up with the new plan with no prior consultation, and urged council to turn it down.

“Visibility of the Gopuram (towers) from afar is the main objective of high Gopuram in Hindu temples,” resident Nax Nagalingam told council.

The five intricate towers on top of the white temple, known as Gopuram, act as beacons for devotees from afar, allowing them to pray or meditate in preparation for their entrance into the temple, he added.

Back in 2016, Monsouri Living, a Richmond Hill real estate company, originally proposed a much less contentious plan in the area, including 60 townhouse units and some commercial floor space.

Both the density and the height of the proposed buildings were well within the limits stipulated in the city’s secondary plan.

Two years later -- two weeks after the new council was sworn in -- the local developer shifted its plan in a different direction and asked the city to revise the secondary plan to allow highrise development.

“We are not antidevelopment protesters,” said R.K. Moorthy, past president of the society. “To put structures 14 or 15 storeys high in the middle of an idyllic environment eclipsing the elegance of our towers and the majestic appearance of our temple is not something we can accept on behalf of thousands of our devotees.”

Council agreed to take their concerns into account in the review of the 14-storey application. But it’s unlikely the height limit will go lower than 10 storeys due to a previous OMB ruling.

“It’s unfortunate that the 10-storey has already been approved there. Is it appropriate? I can’t say,” Ward 3 Coun. Castro Liu commented.

Residents did leave the council chambers with some good news because council was committed to installing a traffic light in front of the temple on Bayview.

While the height remains the focus of their concerns, the devotees also raised issues like the increased density and worsening traffic woes.

“We’ve been fighting for a traffic light in front the temple for years,” Raj said.

About 2.4 per cent of the city’s population identifies as Hindu, and hundreds of devotees and visitors around the GTA visit the temple on a daily basis, said Raj.

With the construction spanning over one and a half decades, the landmark structure was fully completed in the summer of 2001.

Every year, the temple attracts thousands of Hindus from near and far to celebrate the annual Three Chariot Festival, which often leads to traffic issues because visitors have to make a sudden right turn in the middle of Bayview into the temple’s parking lot.

“At the end of the day, nobody can stop the development at all. That we understand, but we have to start a negotiation to reach an agreement,” Raj said.