By Janice Podsada
Herald Writer
BRIER — Rather than face a court battle, the Ananda Church of Self-Realization withdrew its application this week to erect a 35-foot-tall domed church in a Brier neighborhood.
Controversy erupted this summer when the church’s community in Lynnwood, which numbers about 50 children and adults, applied for a major development permit on a 5.5-acre parcel in the 2200 block of Vine Road. The community, located on Larch Way, is affiliated with the international Ananda Church, which is based on meditation and yoga.
When an environmental review recently determined that the 4,500-square-foot church would not significantly impact the environment, a group of about 20 neighbors appealed.
Terry McGilloway, a church spokesman, said it would have cost the church more than $10,000 to fight the appeal.
"It was going to cost the city, it was going to cost us," McGilloway said. "It’s just a lose-lose situation for everyone."
The church building would have retained much of the property’s semirural ambience, McGilloway said.
"The city really didn’t want to work with us," McGilloway said. "It’s Brier’s loss."
The property had been approved for development of a five-unit subdivision. Neighbors, including Anne Cavazos, had said they would rather see five homes built on the parcel rather than a community church.
Neighbors were jubilant this week when they learned at a city council meeting that Ananda had withdrawn its application.
"After the mayor read the letter, we started jumping up and down," Cavazos said.
Neighbors protested the church’s structural design, which they said did not fit the residential character of their neighborhood. They also argued that Vine Road could not accommodate the additional traffic a church would generate.
City regulations require that a church be located on an arterial or collector street. Vine Road was designated an arterial in the 1960s, but by current Snohomish County standards the two-lane street, with no shoulders and no sidewalk, could not be called an arterial.
After Ananda withdrew its application, the Brier City Council approved a six-month moratorium on conditional-use projects, said Dick Russell, Brier public works superintendent.
You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.
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