Seaview Ridge residents appeal Buddhist retreat's expansion OK

Residents in the remote Seaview Ridge area are appealing a decision by the Sonoma County Board of Zoning Adjustments to allow a Buddhist retreat to increase its printing operation.

The board on Thursday approved a use permit for the Ratna Ling Retreat Center to expand its printing of Tibetan-language Buddhist texts, which are destined to be shipped to monasteries in the Himalaya area.

The retreat also received approval to convert four temporary text storage structures to permanent, build a dormitory, add a seasonal campground and increase the number of workers in the printing plant.

Nearby residents, members of the Coastal Hills Rural Preservation, have filed an appeal to the county Board of Supervisors, said spokeswoman Carolyne Singer.

The group contends Ratna Ling's printing operation, which is sanctioned as a religious practice, is an industrial use that should not be allowed in the rural hills above Salt Point State Park and the text storage facilities are fire hazards.