Tian Ann Temple Officials Address Landscaping Concerns with East Braintree Residents

The types and size of plants, lighting angles and water runoff were among the issues that Braintree residents living near the new Tian Ann Temple on Hayward Street brought forward during a community meeting on Thursday night.

Construction on the two-story temple and its 72-space parking lot is expected to finish in early August, leaders of the Buddhist congregation said at , where they gathered with neighbors and town officials as part of to keep the community informed.

The new, 16,840-square-foot building will increase the capacity on site from 150 people to 295 and will be in use mainly on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, with some exceptions including the evenings before full and new moons, temple president Edward Lau said.

Lau showed residents conceptual landscaping designs produced by Michael Curadossi, a landscape architect based in Sandwich. Curadossi's plan in part aims to soften the lines of the building, plant a garden courtyard at the ceremonial entrance on Hayward Street and to use large and medium-sized trees and shrubs to separate the back parking lot from the neighboring homes, to create a visual and sound barrier.

"We want it to be as welcoming as possible and pleasant looking," Lau said.

In response to questions from residents about the flood capacity of the property, Building Inspector Russell Forsberg explained that the drainage system has ample storage room and that it moves water toward a sand filter on the western side of the property and then into the adjacent wetlands. Extreme rains like those experienced in spring 2010 and the accompanying flooding could not be prevented by any system, Forsberg said.

Lau also assured neighbors that any lighting in the parking lot or on the building would be directed away from their homes. The former home of Donna O'Sullivan, built in 1840, remains part of the property.

Tian Ann Temple, unlike many Eastern temples, focuses on more than just worshipping Buddha, Lau said at the meeting last August. It is primarily a center for education, and recently graduated a class of students who had been with the temple since it opened in the late 1990s, when they were babies.