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Whatever
Happened...

An update on past news

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

After 13 years,
Palolo Buddhist temple
will lower roof

Question: What ever happened to the Buddhist temple in Palolo Valley that was supposed to lower its roof?

Answer: The years-long roof saga of the Korean Buddhist Dae Won Sa Temple, which last year changed its name to the Mu-Ryang-Sa Buddhist Temple of Hawaii, may be nearing an end.

The temple's opponents -- chiefly Life of the Land and Concerned Citizens of Palolo -- took Dae Won Sa to court, saying it violated the city's height ordinances. Appeals by the temple, as well as attempts to gain a variance, have failed.

Circuit Judge Kevin Chang, late last year, appointed local attorney Jim Dandar as a court master to oversee a schedule for removal of 6.2 feet of the temple's roof.

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
The Mu-Ryang-Sa Buddhist Temple of Hawaii, formerly
known as the Korean Buddhist Dae Won Sa Temple,
will finally lower its roof, its lawyer says.

Dandar said a new engineer has been hired by the temple. The court gave him until June to come up with a schedule for the work to be completed, but Dandar said he expects it will be ready before then.

Roger Mosely, attorney for the temple, said: "We're not fighting the city anymore. We're very happy with the court's appointed master."

Mosely said it will likely be 18 months to two years before the removal takes place.

"Cutting off this roof is a really tricky thing to do, structurally," Mosely said. The temple also needs to raise the money for the project, which he believes will cost more than $1 million.

Fred Benco, an attorney for the opponents, said Chang appointed a master because "the temple has made no material progress toward cutting the roof down."

Benco said the temple has continually delayed cutting the roof, including failing to file a plan for removal by a previously ordered deadline of Dec. 19, 2000. He said it has been 13 years since the first court ruling that ordered the roof to be lowered. Asked why the process has been slow-moving, Mosely said: "Things beyond our control have caused some of the delays."

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