Buddhist Group Claims Discrimination Behind Zoning Problems

 

A Johnson County Buddhist church has outgrown it's building, and they have a new place to worship picked out. But so far they have been denied the right to use it, and a metro Buddhist leader says that zoning isn't the reason why they can't move in.

The Lao-Buddhist Association is trying to move it's Olathe temple to a location along 119th Street in Olathe. But the Johnson County Board of Commissioners has so far denied the group a conditional use permit. Neighbors say that the area the Buddhists have chosen is zoned residential, but Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime Buddhist Center says that discrimination is the real reason behind the opposition.

"This is clearly just ugliness of ethnic and religious prejudice," said Stanford.

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