The VISION, FPC, Executive Board and Temple Board have been engaged in the last several months in making sure the future of the Mountain View Buddhist Temple is not impacted by the City of Mountain View’s ongoing process of revising their Historic Resource Designation (HRD). On the face of it, this sounds very positive, designating properties, including our Temple due to some importance in the City’s history. However, this can have very negative implications to a property or property owner as you may have read in recent news reports covering several San Jose JapanTown properties and their struggles with HRD.
The reality is that a HRD can severely limit or deny a property owner from making any modifications to their property, whether or not the request for renovations is for the benefit of its owner, or in our case organization. In other words, our entire process to re-envision our Campus, make improvements for the benefit of our Sangha and modify buildings or resources could potentially be DENIED or require extensive revisions making it too expensive or unreasonable to accomplish. Additionally, should our property need to be sold for any reason, it would be devalued due to the encumbrance of this HRD.
Since our notification in August, Edwin Ryu, Harold Fujii, Bob Matsumoto, Doug Sawamura and myself have worked tirelessly to protect MVBT from being included on the HRD list. In November, the Temple Board authorized professional legal counsel to assist us. A strong letter was sent to the City of Mountain View and in the City Council meet- ing on December 9. As a result, we were informed that MVBT will be REMOVED from the Draft List and WILL NOT be considered for the final Historic Resource Designation.
I am extremely thankful for the assistance of Harold, Ed, Bob and Doug as well as our legal counsel in working through this process. It is potentially NOT entirely over as the finalization of the process will not be until mid-2026, but certainly I am breathing a sizable sigh of relief over the actions of our Temple and Board to protect the interests of the Mountain View Buddhist Temple and its Sangha Community.
In Appreciation, Julie Satake Ryu
2025 – 2026 MVBT Board President