Some Kelowna, B.C. residents concerned with proposed site for new gurdwara

Kelowna’s Gurdwara Guru Amardas Darbar Sikh Society is hoping to build a new temple on Benvoulin Road, as they’ve grown too large for their current place of worship.

However, some residents near the proposed site have raised concerns about what will happen to their neighbourhood.

The Sikh society brought the proposal to city council on April 24 to rezone the current agricultural land at 2809 Benvoulin Road.

Council voted in favour 8 to 1 of moving it to a public hearing, with some councillors saying the new temple will provide agricultural and religious opportunities.

“This congregation of farmers farm over 2,000 acres of land in the central Okanagan and they are in dire need of a new facility. It meets the spiritual needs of our farming community,” said city councillor Mohini Singh at the Apr. 24 council meeting.

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However, residents in this neighbourhood near the proposed land have mixed feelings.

They feel as if it will turn their quiet community into a busy one, with lots of traffic.

“The congestion would result in coming down a narrow road for access to the facility and the access off of Benvoulin Road onto Fisher Road and vice-versa. It’d be very difficult; it takes a long time to get out of there sometimes,” said nearby resident Terry Robertson.

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The Sikh society and Urban Options, the company working with the society, say they visited the community for feedback and talked to 60 per cent of the people who live there.

The groups don’t believe the place of worship will be a nuisance to residents on a daily basis.

“Obviously the main day for worship is on a Sunday. So that would be the day that we would see the most traffic to the site and any of the festivals many of us have gone to,” said Birte Decloux with Urban Options on April 24.

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Residents say their neighbourhood was designated a traffic-calmed community by the city and allowing the temple to be built here will go against that.

“Almost ironic that the city would be considering putting in a facility like this and increasing the traffic so much,” Robertson said.

“There are signs up there now and the speed bumps to slow the traffic down because there was so much traffic to warrant the traffic calming.”

Robertson says they garnered 151 signatures from people in the neighbourhood and they will be presenting that to council at the public hearing.