Source: The Bristol Press
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=60,7401,0,0,1,0
For decades, the United Auto Workers gathered weekly in a meeting hall on Park Street to talk shop.
But their hall, which has sat idle for years since the departure of General Motors, may soon ring with the voices of Buddhist monks.
The city’s Zoning Commission gave its unanimous blessing recently to a plan by the Cambodian Buddhist Society of Connecticut to turn the decrepit old hall into a temple.
Gina Newman, a planning commissioner, called it “fabulous” that the Buddhists aim to join Bristol’s melting pot to worship and showcase their culture and faith.
The plan calls for renovating the old union hall at 247 Park St. so that it can house three to five monks who would live there. The old meeting space would be used for worship and other events.
Supporters said there are four major celebrations annually that would likely bring about 250 people to the hall, but most of the time it would be a tranquil, quiet place.
The temple’s quick approval in Bristol stands in sharp contrast to the outcry in Newtown when Buddhists sought to construct a small temple on 10 acres of former farmland — a tempest that ultimately led land-use regulators to shoot down the plan.
In Bristol, however, the request drew a crowd to Thursday’s Zoning Commission session to urge approval of the idea, not to fight it.