Zoning board approves revised plan for pagoda
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN — Zoning board members have approved modifications to a pagoda and meditation center that initially received approval from the panel in 1999. The structures have yet to be built.

Representatives of the America-Burma Buddhist Association appeared before the board earlier this month to present revised plans for the 4.7-acre property on Gordons Corner Road next to the Taylor Mills School.

Attorney Matthew Kane said the facilities will be known as the Lokachantha Temple and the Mahasi Meditation Center.

When the application came before the board in 1998 and 1999, the association requested permission to build a 10,000-square-foot temple and pagoda and a 35-foot-high separate dormitory.

“We’re simply downsizing what the board already approved in 1999,” Kane said. “We’re looking only for the approval of these modifications.”

Kane said the pagoda is not going to be used for occupancy and the size of the pagoda is going to be decreased. The 100 foot square plaza around the building will be reduced to a 20-foot-wide walkway. A wooden bridge will be a concrete bridge and the walk will be reduced in size. There will be a ramp connecting the bridge to the walkway around the pagoda and three sets of stairs will connect the property site to the pagoda.

Architect Mahendra P. Bedi described the changes in the plan, noting a reduction in the size of the pagoda. He said the meditation center is a two-story building.

Engineer Julius T. Szalay said the changes to the plan have to do specifically with the height of the pagoda.

“The connecting bridge between the meditation center and the pagoda which was previously a wood bridge is being proposed as a concrete bridge,” Szalay said. “The original pagoda structure that [people] could go inside was 2,025 square feet. The new structure, which is where people stand on the outside, is a total of 1,427 square feet.”

The previous height of the pagoda, including the spire, was 50 feet. That has been reduced to a height of 31 feet.

“The previous pagoda had a concrete square structure around it that was 100 feet by 100 feet,” said the engineer. The new structure will be a concrete hexagon with an outside dimension of 80 feet. There were access stairs on three sides of the originally approved pagoda. The terrace stays the same.”

An existing structure that will remain is a 1 1/2-story dwelling, a garage and the proposed meditation structure complex. A 150-foot-long wall along the detention basin has been reduced to a 50-foot-long wall.

“The location of the pagoda is in exactly the same area. The distance from the southern property line was 122 feet and it is now 132 feet,” Szalay said. “The distance from the easterly property line was 123 feet and it is now 129 feet.”

All other aspects of the application, which was approved in 1999, will remain the same.

Board member Diane Padlo questioned the amount of use the facility would receive and asked if the parking be adequate.

Szalay said that three or four times a year there would be a special event or services and people would be going to the concrete area surrounding the pagoda.

“If anything the area is smaller,” the engineer said. “There would be more of a chance that fewer people would be there. The entire meditation structure is the same.”

Subsequent testimony indicated there would be fewer than 100 members using the facility. A total of 39 parking spaces have been provided.

Bedi, the architect, said there will be lights at the base of the pagoda, but not on the pagoda.

Public sewers will serve the property, but there will not be anyone living in the existing house, according to the testimony.

A member of the America-Burma Buddhist Association testified that meditation is done in silence and said that no outdoor sound system will be used at the site.

The zoning board members determined that a fence around the property will not be required and then voted 9-0 to approve the revised plans.