No Permit Nearly Dooms Temple But City, Buddhists Work Out Agreement In Tacoma

In Vietnam, zoning laws are virtually unheard of so people can build wherever they want as long as it’s their land.

So Buddhist monk Phuoch Toan Thich says he and fellow worshipers didn’t know they were doing anything wrong when they turned a house into a temple in a Tacoma neighborhood.

A neighbor thought they were running a car auction and alerted the city.

Now the members of the Happiness and Wisdom Meditation Temple are asking the city for a special-use zoning permit to the tune of $5,300 in fees.

“We need to have a place to worship,” said Mark Trinh, a temple founder. “We try our best. Decision is not ours.”

The temple, Pierce County’s first for Vietnamese Buddhists, draws 100 worshipers most Sundays and twice that on special occasions, said Thich.

Thich said it took much hardship for members to raise the $3,000 for the permit application fee, $300 for an environmental survey and $2,000 to seek a waiver from a city requirement to pave the temple’s lot.

“They come here. They are on welfare,” Thich said of the temple members, most of whom arrived recently in the United States. “Somebody make $5 an hour, pay rent. It’s very difficult for us.”

City planner Karie Hayashi said the city is trying to help the temple stay open. The city could have charged the temple twice as much to penalize members for violating the zoning ordinance, but she said officials recognized the temple’s financial situation.

The neighborhood is zoned for one-family residences.

“We’re not familiar with the laws and rules here,” Trinh said. “The law in the United States is very different. In Vietnam, whoever wants to build just builds anywhere.”