‘Highway to Heaven’: the creation of a multicultural, religious landscape in suburban Richmond, British Columbia

Abstract

We analyse the emergence of the ‘Highway to Heaven’, a distinctive landscape of more than 20 diverse religious buildings, in the suburban municipality of Richmond, outside Vancouver, to explore the intersections of immigration, planning, multiculturalism, religion and suburban space. In the context of wider contested planning disputes for new places of worship for immigrant communities, the creation of a designated ‘Assembly District’ in Richmond emerged as a creative response to multicultural planning. However, it is also a contradictory policy, co-opting religious communities to municipal requirements to safeguard agricultural land and prevent suburban sprawl, but with limited success. The unanticipated outcomes of a designated planning zone for religious buildings include production of an agglomeration of increasingly spectacular religious facilities that exceed municipal planning regulations. Such developments are accommodated through a celebratory narrative of municipal multiculturalism, but one that fails to engage with the communal narratives of the faith communities themselves and may exoticize or commodify religious identity.

‘La route du paradis’: création d’un paysage multiculturel religieux en banlieue de Richmond en Colombie-Britannique

Résumé : Nous analysons l’émergence d’une « route du paradis », un paysage unique de plus de vingt bâtiments religieux différents, dans la banlieue municipale de Richmond, près de Vancouver, pour explorer les intersections de l’immigration, l’urbanisation, le multiculturalisme, la religion et l’espace urbain. Dans le contexte de polémiques plus générales d’urbanisation contestée pour de nouveaux lieux de culte destinés aux communautés d’immigrants, la création d’un « quartier d’assemblées » à Richmond est née, réponse créative à un urbanisme multiculturel. Toutefois, c’est une politique contradictoire qui récupère les communautés religieuses pour satisfaire les besoins municipaux de sauvegarder les terres agricoles et empêcher l’expansion urbaine, mais avec un succès limité. Les conséquences non prévues d’une zone d’aménagement réservée aux bâtiments religieux comprennent la production d’une agglomération de constructions de plus en plus spectaculaires qui dépassent les règles municipales d’aménagement. Ces développements sont accueillis par un discours jubilatoire de multiculturalisme municipal, mais toutefois ils ne réussissent pas à engager le dialogue avec les discours communautaires des communautés religieuses elles-mêmes et ils risquent en fait de les rendre exotiques ou de faire de l’identité religieuse une marchandise.

Resumen: Se analiza el surgimiento de la ‘Carretera hacia el cielo’, un paisaje distintivo de más de veinte edificios religiosos diversos en el municipio suburbano de Richmond, en las afueras de Vancouver, para explorar las intersecciones de la inmigración, la planificación, el multiculturalismo, la religión y el espacio suburbano. Dentro del contexto de amplias y conflictivas disputas de planificación para nuevos lugares de culto para las comunidades de inmigrantes, la creación de una Asamblea de Distrito designada a Richmond surgió como una respuesta creativa a la planificación multicultural. Sin embargo, también es una política contradictoria, incorporando comunidades religiosas para ajustarse a requerimientos municipales para salvaguardar las tierras agrícolas y prevenir la expansión suburbana, pero con un éxito limitado. Los resultados no previstos de una zona designada para la planificación de los edificios religiosos incluyen la producción de una aglomeración de cada vez más instalaciones religiosas espectaculares que exceden normas urbanísticas municipales. Estos complejos se acomodan a través de un relato de celebración del multiculturalismo municipal, pero que no se compromete con las narraciones comunales de las comunidades de fe en sí y pueden impregnar de exotismo o mercantilizar la identidad religiosa.

Keywords:

• Religion
• multiculturalism
• suburbs

Mots clés:

• religion
• multiculturalisme
• banlieues

Palabras clave:

• religión
• multiculturalismo
• barrios periféricos

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to all the individuals and organizations who have helped us with the research, particularly those from the faith communities on Number 5 Road. We would also like to acknowledge the helpful feedback from colleagues at the conferences and seminars at which earlier versions of this paper have been presented.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the Metropolis Canada [grant number 12R47822].

Notes

1. The research project ‘Highway to Heaven?’ New suburban religious landscapes and immigrant integration’ was funded by Metropolis Canada (Grant Reference 12R47822) and conducted by the authors between 2010 and 2012.

2. See the activities of the Faith and Place Network http://faithandplacenetwork.org/ which works at the interface of planning, place and planning to connect faith communities with academics and planners.

3. Richmond Mayor Malcom Brodie, speaking at the opening of the Thrangu Monastery on No.5 Road, 26 July 2010 (authors’ field notes, see also The Richmond News 26 July 2010).

4. Members of visible minorities are defined by the Canadian Employment Equity Act as ‘persons, other than Aboriginal people, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour’ (Statistics Canada, 2014).

5. City of Richmond (1990) ‘Non-Farm use along the No. 5 Road Corridor’ (Policy 5006).

6. We were unable to make contact with Rosemary Church and the Evangelical Formosan Church who rent the premises of the Trinity Church for their services.

7. For further details of the research design and interview focus (see Dwyer, Tse, & Ley, 2013).

8. The project was approved by the Ethics Board at the University of British Columbia and we have followed appropriate ethical codes concerning the identification of research subjects.

9. The Guru Nanaksar Gursikh Gurdwara is a Sikh Temple built in traditional punjabi style with elaborate painted façade which opened in 1994.

10. The International Buddhist Temple or Guan-Yin Buddhist Temple opened in 1983 and is a large Chinese temple said to be modelled on the Forbidden City in Beijing.

11. Interview with the authors, 2 April 2011.

12. ‘Richmond to Review Number 5 Road Backlands Policy’, City of Richmond, 16 December 2010.

13. In common with some of the other faith communities, this respondent marks an implicit class, and often also caste-based, distinction between his community and those from a lower class who might undertake the manual labour associated with agriculture. This was a distinction which was not often understood by policy makers.

14. Amended No. 5 Road Backlands Policy. Endorsed by Planning Committee on March 21, 2000. City of Richmond, Vancouver.

15. ‘Shia Mosque given one less chance for tax break’ The Richmond News, 25 September 2010.

16. Interview with authors, 12 November 2009.

17. ‘Richmond to Review Number 5 Road Backlands Policy’, Statement, City of Richmond, 16 December 2010 http://www.richmond.ca/news/city/no5rdbacklandspolicyreview.htm (accessed 3 August 2012).

18. Meeting with the Council Planners to tell them about our research, we were urged to gain data about numbers and residence of visitors to the places of worship. These data were hard for the city planners to obtain and often disputed. While we asked these questions in all our interviews we did not collect systematic data about congregation size or the home residence of members of different faith communities.

19. ‘Richmond to Review Number 5 Road Backlands Policy’, City of Richmond, 16 December 2010.

20. Confirmed in interview with real estate agent Harold Shury, 27 April 2010.

21. A miniature Tibet you should visit in Richmond, British Columbia (Vajra Vidhya Buddhist Association, Vancouver, no date, obtained from Lama Pema, Vajra Vidhya Buddhist Association, March 2010).

22. Development Permit Panel Report, City of Richmond Planning and Development Department, 16 July 2007.

23. The English-speaking congregation were more favourably disposed to the idea of selling up, whilst the newer Chinese congregation were opposed. For many, as one of our interviewees acknowledged, there remained a cultural stumbling block towards their Buddhist neighbours given frequent familial conflicts over Christian conversion.

24. James Cheng is best known for his green glass condominium towers in West Vancouver, which helped to create the architectural style know as ‘Vancouverism’. Fong, Petti, ‘Vancouver icon takes on Toronto’ Toronto Star 16 June 2007.

25. Wayne Craig, Director of Development, City of Richmond, Report to Planning Committee, 8 April 2014.

26. Cited in Richmond News, 22 April 2014. Carol Day was also interviewed by the authors on 4 April 2011.

27. Cited in Richmond News, 24 April 2014.

28. ‘Say No to Buddha Disneyland’ Letter from Carol Day to the Editor, Richmond News 29 September 2010. Day admitted in her interview with the authors that this comment was ‘a mistake’ (Interview with authors, 4 April 2011). Day’s characterization may have been an implicit reference to Fantasty Gardens, an amusement park built by a former premier of British Columbia, Bill Vander Zalm, at the southern end of No. 5 Road in the 1980s, now the site of the new housing development, The Gardens, see Figure 1. The park included representations of European cities and a Biblical scene, and was used as backdrop in a number of film, television and video productions. It was demolished in 2010.

29. Interview with authors, 23 September 2011.

30. Mayor Brodie recalled this citation at the Opening of the Thrangu Monastery, 26 July 2010.

31. Notes from fieldwork, 26 July 2010.

32. Interview with authors, 1 April 2011.

33. Interview with authors, 29 March 2011.

34. Interview with authors, 15 September 2010.

35. Interview with authors 29 July 2010.

36. See http://www.richmond.ca/shared/assets/Mouth_of_the_Fraser_-_Fall_201234046.pdf

37. Interview with authors, 15 September 2010.

38. Our field work did not reveal a definitive answer to the origins of the colloquial name ‘Highway to Heaven’, since more than one respondent claimed to have invented it. Even Tourism Richmond sought to lay claim to the name!

39. Tourism Richmond, Destination Guide, 2011/2012.

40. Interview with authors, 6 April 2011.

41. Interview with authors, 5 April 2011.

42. Interview with authors, 22 April 2010.