Silicon Valley: A proposal to build a Hindu temple and a cultural centre, tipped as the largest in Southern California, is causing much disconcert in the Chino Hills area, a media report said in Silicon Valley today (Oct 5, 2004).

The project ran into rough weather following protests from the local residents after which the Chino Hills city council blocked it last month by refusing to allow the height of the temple's spires to exceed the city's limit.

Local Hindu leaders are now struggling to decide whether to fight the decision in court or to continue their four-year search for a home for Southern California's growing Hindu population.

"Our issue was very clear. We would like it to be an asset to the community," Govind Vaghashia, spokesman for the project proponent Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), was quoted as saying by the 'Los Angeles Times' today.

However, Chino residents have protested vehemently against the temple, saying it would generate too much traffic, ruin the city's atmosphere and become an unwanted regional attraction.

Objections also surfaced from opponents who said the project would turn Chino Hills into a "Third World city" and "a haven for terrorists."

One petition to stop the project said the temple would play a role in "changing the city's demographics forever."

The fight over the temple in Chino Hills is the latest in a series of skirmishes around the country in recent years over plans to build bigger houses of worship, land use experts said.