A view of the southwest corner of Kiel Street and Berlin Avenue in Henderson Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. The land is the site for a future Hindu temple.
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022 | 4:54 p.m.
Residents of an east Henderson neighborhood intend to file a lawsuit against the city with hopes of reversing a ruling by the Henderson Planning Commission approving a zoning permit for the American Hindu Association to build a temple in their rural neighborhood.
The Henderson City Council on Tuesday voted to uphold the planning commission’s action for the temple planned at Berlin Avenue and North Milan Street near Racetrack Road.
In a statement on Facebook, the Save Section 4 RNP group — run by resident Autumn Hood — announced that their “next step is judicial review.”
Council member Dan Shaw defended the council’s decision after acknowledging the city could face a lawsuit from both the American Hindu Association or the Henderson residents regardless of which route they took.
“I cannot control what (the American Hindu Association or Henderson residents) do — you choose to sue us, that’s your call,” Shaw said during the meeting. “I think the one thing that we can do is make every effort possible to make sure that we do not cross the (Religious Land Use And Institutionalized Persons Act) guidelines and avoid involvement of the federal government.”
American Hindu Association secretary Baba Anal bought the property and made the initial proposal for the temple in early spring. Anal and his team met with neighbors near the proposed site and made changes to the original five-acre design to fit within the city’s zoning guidelines, finally receiving permission to build on Aug. 11.
As Hindus in the area are waiting for the temple to be built, roughly 300 have been attending sessions at Anal's house; there are just two Hindu temples in the Southern Nevada, both in Las Vegas.
The neighborhood is classified as a Rural Neighborhood Preservation area, which authorizes jurisdictions to adopt zoning regulations and other restrictions to protect rural preservation in neighborhoods. Approved by the Nevada Legislature in 1999, Senate Bill 391 was in response to Southern Nevada's turn of the century population growth.
The residents group argues the temple complex proposal violates this legislation. They stress a neighborhood is no place for a commercial building, whether a business or a temple. The complex, which includes a temple and a secondary building to serve as a residence for officials, is proposed over 5 acres.
In approving the proposal, the planning commission cited the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal civil rights law “that protects individuals and religious assemblies and institutions from discriminatory and unduly burdensome land-use regulations.”
The act “takes precedence” over any local land use codes during conflicts, such as the one that arose with this project, said Kathleen Richards, a spokesperson for the city of Henderson.
While the act leaves the door open for religious institutions, these sites can still be denied if the city shows there is “a compelling governmental interest for the restriction” by creating “some substantial threat to public safety, peace or order,” Richards said.
The government must also show that “it is using the means that are least restrictive of religious freedom,” even if the government can argue that the religious institution poses a threat to the public.
Attorney George Garcia of Henderson, who represented some residents with properties near the site, issued a statement.
“We recognize that there’s this constitutional protection and recognition of these facilities,” said Garcia, “but at the same time, while the Congress… didn’t say that churches could go anywhere basically without any hindrance whatsoever.”
