NORWALK : Temple Backers Sue for Right to Build It
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Backers of a plan to build a $1.2-million Hindu temple in Norwalk have filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court to force the city to allow the temple to be built.
The Norwalk City Council voted against a permit for the building in July, after a group of residents said the temple would flood their neighborhood with traffic.
The suit contends that the temple proposed by the International Swaminarayan Satsang Organization met or exceeded city building and parking requirements and that the council’s action deprived the Hindus of their right to religious freedom. Richard Marston, attorney for the group, said the project would have been approved “if this were not a Hindu Temple and it had been some more conventional religious institution.”
Denying in July that discrimination was a factor, the council said the temple would be a regional church that could draw traffic to the area.
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