Expansion attempts by a small Hindu temple in Queens Village have run into a roadblock, with local homeowners and others fighting the proposal.
The 60-member congregation of the Satya Sanatan Dharma Sabha temple have worshiped in a one-family dwelling at 215th Place and Hillside Ave. for more than four years.
Congregation leaders are seeking to legalize the use of the building as a house of worship.
"It appears that four or five years ago, when the congregation acquired the property, they obtained the services of an architect to file for the proposed conversion," temple attorney Irving Minkin said at a land-use hearing at Queens Borough Hall last week.
The architect, Minkin continued, "self-certified" the use in lieu of seeking Buildings Department approval - a practice that is permitted, but is coming under increased scrutiny by civic groups and legislators.
"The congregation proceeded on what they thought was a lawful permit, and after they proceeded with a good deal of work and were already in occupancy," the Buildings Department inspected the site and "found that the architect had erred," the attorney said.
Temple officials are now trying to rectify that so that they can expand the structure almost to the property line on 215th Place, a move that would allow the congregation to grow.
The temple took the application to Community Board 13, which represents the area. The board's land-use committee voted in favor of approval, but later at the general board meeting, 15 board members voted against the proposal, with 12 in favor and four abstentions.
The turnaround in the vote followed "impassioned pleas of the residents who came to the general meeting," said Community Board 13 chairman Richard Hellenbrecht.
Neighbors of the temple "were successful in persuading many of the board members to go along with their position in opposition to this particular structure," Hellenbrecht said.
He added that the neighborhood already
is affected by a Buddhist temple very close to it on Spencer Ave. That
temple, he said, "attracts a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic."