The Aurora City Council has approved final plans for the expansion of a Hindu temple on the city’s West Side, with conditions that were designed to address the concerns of neighbors, officials said.
Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday night for final plans, and a revision to a conditional use, for Sai Samsthan USA, a Hindu temple at 1101 Foran Lane.
The votes will allow the temple to expand in two phases, enlarging the 5½-acre site on which it sits to 6 acres, and building two additions.
The expansion would be done in two phases, and while the second phase could be as much as five years away, city planning officials thought it would be best to bring the plans for both phases through the City Council at the same time.
In approving the final plans, the council attached conditions they hope will address concerns that neighbors of the temple have had since it opened in 2008.
The temple currently has a 7,000-square-foot sanctuary building that accommodates 375 people, and wants to build a 3,400-square-foot addition that would provide more room for coats and shoes, with a meditation room. That would be the first phase.
Planners saw that as accommodating current worshipers at the temple, so it did not require any additional parking spaces.
As part of the plan, temple officials also would expand the site from 5½ acres to 6 acres to bring in a house at 1125 Foran Lane that the religious institution already owns. It would be used as an accessory dwelling for the temple’s worship leadership, according to city officials.
That part of the expansion would require an amendment to the conditional use already on the property.
The second phase is to build a 7,000-square-foot, two-story addition on the north side of the existing building for expanded worship, offices, classrooms and community space.
Planning officials said that would require another 36 parking spaces, which the temple could add to its current parking lot.
One of the conditions the City Council attached to approval of the final plans – and one temple officials agreed to – was to build the parking lot expansion as part of the first phase, instead of the second.
That would possibly put neighbors at ease who said in the past, when the temple would have big events, people would park up and down residential streets.
The temple also has a once-a-year event around Labor Day that draws a big crowd, officials said.
Another condition temple officials agreed to was to build a monument sign with an electronic message board at the road that enters the temple property. Ed Sieben, Aurora’s planning and zoning director, said you cannot see the temple from Foran Lane, and the confusion about where the entrance road is has led to people driving up and down Foran Lane, pulling into driveways and asking for directions.
“It’s hard to tell where the entrance is,” Sieben said. “A sign would give identification.”
It also would give times and dates of events, letting the neighbors know when activity is taking place there, Sieben said.
The conditions were arrived at after a meeting between some city officials and some neighbors of the temple. Ald. Michael Saville, 6th Ward, attended the meeting, and said residents and the city came to a consensus on the conditions.
He said the identification sign would be similar to what St. Rita’s Catholic Church has, which is in the same neighborhood.
Temple officials also have agreed to get a special event permit from the city for their larger events.
slord@tribpub.com