Search the Community

Sikh temple groundbreaking set for April 10 By Andrew Creasey/acreasey@appealdemocrat.com After weathering a funding drought caused by the recession and surviving a round of legal battles with Sutter County, the supporters of the long-planned Sikh temple on George Washington Boulevard will hold a groundbreaking ceremony this month. The $15 million project on 29 acres is by the Guru Nanak Sikh Society of Yuba City, which has planned it for about 15 years. After jumping through legal hoops and navigating building code changes, the 40,000-square-foot temple is finally ready to move forward. Construction is expected to begin in about a month, said Sukhcharan Singh, spokesman for the Guru Nanak Sikh Society. "It's been a rollercoaster," Singh said. "All the hoops we've had to jump through, we've jumped through. There were lots of storms to weather, but we have been resilient. Now things are turning in a positive way." The groundbreaking ceremony is planned to start at about noon on April 10 at 1298 South George Washington Blvd. The public is welcome and lunch will be served. The temple is planned to be a state-of-the-art facility, with a variety of environmentally minded features, including solar panels, a reliance on natural lighting, walls insulated with hay bales to better retain heat and a parking lot made from permeable concrete to better recharge the groundwater aquifer, Singh said. A planned Sikh community center will focus on imparting these environmentally conscious views to the next generation, Singh said. "That way we can leave a good planet for our kids," Singh said. "We can't leave things the way they are." The community center will also offer English language classes to help assimilate Sikhs moving from Punjab. "If we have that, we can bridge that gap of assimilating these people coming from India to American society," Singh said. "Right now, sometimes people don't get that or don't have money to get that professional education." The pentagon-shaped temple will also feature 4.5 acres of parks and a pond, featuring local plants and animals, Singh said. Currently, the Guru Nanak Sikh Society has a temple on Bogue Road. The society is separate from the Sikh Temple on Tierra Buena Road. A long road Construction of the temple had been hotly contested for several years before a federal appeals court in 2006 ruled the Guru Nanak Sikh Society was within its right to build a temple in the agricultural-zoned area. In 2002, Sutter County rejected the Guru Nanak Sikh Society's request to convert a 2,300-square-foot home into a temporary temple at that location, calling it "leapfrog development." Neighbors also had complained the temple would increase traffic and noise, interfere with agricultural use of their land and lower property values. That same year, the Guru Nanak Sikh Society sued in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, claiming a civil rights violation. The court ruled in the society's favor a year later. In December 2003, the supervisors voted unanimously to appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. In August 2006, the appeals court ruled in favor of the Sikhs, and the supervisors approved plans for the temple the following month. Further plans for the temple were submitted to the county and approved in 2010, but the society needed to raise more funds before work could begin. Problems with contractors going out of business delayed the process, Singh said. In the meantime, the county's building code was updated, and the temple plans had to be brought in line with the changes. That process is ongoing, but the grading process on the site can begin before the plans are reapproved by the county, Singh said. CONTACT reporter Andrew Creasey at 749-4780 and on Twitter @AD_Creasey. Source - http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/sikh-temple-groundbreaking-set-for-april/article_a8fa13f0-f85f-11e5-b87a-53cb149dfe28.html?mode=jqm