A Tibetan monastery on No. 5 Road’s “Highway to Heaven” is asking for permission to erect religious statues, a produce store and parking on its agricultural land.
The Thrangu Monastery just southeast of the No. 5 and Blundell roads intersection — the first traditional Tibetan monastery in the Pacific Northwest – has been given preliminary approval by the City of Richmond to apply to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) for a non-farm use on its property.
Like many of the religious institutions on No. 5 Road, the monastery utilizes some of its agriculturally zoned property to grow crops, thus attracting lower property taxes.
The monastery — which sublets a portion of its property to a local farmer to produce fruits, vegetables and flowers — wants to “beautify” the westerly 110 metres of the site with eight, four-metre “stupas,” or statues.
It also wants to build a one-storey building (53.5 square metres) for selling produce grown on the site, and create 54 parking spaces for customers and overflow for monastery events.
City council’s planning committee has given the monastery permission to apply to the ALC for the non-farm uses.
If the ALC gives the green light, the monastery must then apply for rezoning from the City of Richmond.
