Dear Sangha,
Bright Way Zen’s Strategic Plan, adopted in 2024, identifies a goal of “working toward ownership of a physical Zen center sufficient for the Sangha’s needs by 2035.” The reasons behind this goal can be found here: Our Dream of Developing Community.
The time frame for searching for a new home was moved up because we anticipate the owners of the building we rent will want to sell within the next year or two (and we aren’t interested in buying the building in part because its parking is so constrained), and because Sangha enthusiasm is growing for having our own place, including a kitchen to use for retreats. We formed a “New Home Committee” in July of 2025. and began watching property listings.
We didn’t anticipate that a possible new home would appear so soon, but the New Home Committee and BWZ’s Board of Directors wanted to share with you this property: 8815 SW Oleson Road (click link for Zillow listing). Click here to view a video tour of the property including intended uses.
Positives:
- Central location relative to current BWZ membership and westside population centers
- On a bus line (bus stop is right out front)
- Room for parking (25 cars easily, and more can fit with some planning an alterations), plus neighborhood parking within a few minute walk (there is a sidewalk along Oleson Road)
- Attractive and inviting setting
- A teacher’s residence or “parsonage” – this would be the front portion of the house including kitchen,* Zillow photos 8-24 (it’s very nice but not as big as it looks in the photos), allowing Domyo (and her husband) to live on site and for the Zen center to have more activities and open hours from Tuesday noon through Sunday service, including hosting AM sitting and service. *The kitchen would be available during retreats.
- A large enough room to accommodate a Zendo immediately. Zillow photos 25-27, and the diagram below that indicates 27 seats (our current Zendo has 31, which we rarely fill at this point). If we had more than 27 attendees for zazen, people could sit upstairs, and more than 27 could fit in the room for talks.
- Room for expansion: The plan would be to convert the garage into a larger Zendo, allowing the “game room” space to be converted into a kitchen + fellowship hall (or something like that). In the long term, an addition could be made to the “back” of the garage to make a bigger Zendo + additional bathrooms, etc.
- Three rooms for Zen center use: There are rooms above the garage (Zillow photos 28-34) that could be used for a Zen center office and library (converting the walk-in closet), multi-purpose meeting/sanzen/overnight space, and room for a possible ordained resident at some point.
- Space for Cloud members to come and stay. There’s enough room to accomodate at least one Cloud Zendo member overnight even without improvements, although there will not be access to a full kitchen. Still, it wouldn’t take much to develop this capacity further.
- Other features: Large basement for storage (Zillow photos 38-40), cottage out back that could be renovated into a guest house (Zillow photos 41 & 44), bathroom off Zendo/game room (Zillow photo 35), separate entrance for Zendo/Zen center (Zillow photo 36).
- Optimal location for conditional use approval: For a religious institution to legally operate on a residential property, we would have to apply for a non-confirming use permit from the county. The property is zoned R-5 and is in unincorporated Washington county, so church use is allowed as long as we meet various requirements (re: safety, transportation, etc.). The fact that the property is located on an arterial road, fully fenced and fairly private from neighbors, and directly across the street from a non-residential use are all things in our favor.
Considerations:
- Bright Way Zen is not yet in a financial position to purchase a property of this price and scale. The property would be purchased by our teacher, Domyo, and her husband John, using all of the equity from their current home.
- For the foreseeable future, Bright Way Zen would be leasing the property from the Burks and would cover the cost of the mortage + property insurance (about $4,000/month), utilities, and maintenance. The Zen center’s rent would be higher than it is now ($3,600/month) but it’s projected that the Zen center could afford this situation in the near term if Domyo’s salary was (temporarily) decreased. Click here for a projected 2027 Zen Center budget for this scenario. This decrease is counter to another goal in BWZ’s Strategic Plan (to increase the teacher compensation to $70,000/year by 2030), but part of the Zen center’s compensation would be housing (valued at about $24,000 a year, so in the 2027 projected budget her support would equal $35,000+$24,000=$59,000 – an increase from 2026).
- Bright Way Zen would enter into a legal agreement to purchase the property from the Burks as soon as possible, with a goal of doing this within 15 years. The Board would launch a longer-term capital and planned giving campaign toward this goal. Realistically, it is projected that the Zen center could purchase between 5-10 years from now.
Because of the substantial risk the Burks would be taking in purchasing an expensive property that for many reasons is unsuitable for a single family home (and therefore difficult to sell), they are asking the Bright Way Zen Sangha to raise (at least) $100,000 before Wed. Feb 11th, before they make a formal offer on this property.
- The $100,000 can consist of immediate donations or pledges that would be fulfilled within 2 months (the approximate time of closing)
- These funds would belong to the Zen center and would be used for any expenses associated with establishing this new home, including: Permit application fees, legal fees, settling out of our current lease, improvements to the property required by the county for conditional use or occupancy, improvements to the property the Zen center might want to make including painting, tech setup, the conversion of the walk-in closet into an office, and/or an external staircase for accessing the second floor of the Zen center space (above the garage). Any funds not immediately used would be dedicated toward the first steps of longer-term improvements such as converting the garage into a large Zendo space.
- This $100,000 would not only be important for covering costs, it would be a good faith demonstration on the part of the Sangha that the Burks are not taking a financial risk without corresponding support and commitment from the community.
- Assuming all other aspects of this process go well (we continue discussions with the county, a real estate lawyer, financial advisor, tax consultant, etc.), the Burks would make a formal offer as soon as BWZ raised $100,000 in donations or pledges. The property is in preforeclosure and we will also need to ask for a fairly long due diligence period to make sure there are no insurmountable obstacles to our conditional use with the county, so the sooner we raise the funds the better!
We understand that the financial situations of our Bright Way Zen members and friends vary widely. Some members are on fixed incomes and can’t afford to donate financially at all, others are fortunate to have considerable resources and few financial obligations, and everyone else falls somewhere in between.
If you can’t afford to contribute to the Oleson Road Campaign at this time, please don’t feel obligated. If we can’t raise the funds by Feb. 11th, it’s probably a sign that our Sangha isn’t ready for this step. However, if you can afford to contribute, please consider offering as much as you can to launch Bright Way Zen into a new and exciting phase of our development as a community.
Questions? Please join us for an all-invited Zoom meeting* on Wednesday, Feb. 4th, 6-8pm Pacific Time. Domyo, Home Committee, and Board members will be present to answer questions and address concerns. The meeting will be recorded in case you can’t make it (the link will be posted here). *BWZ’s Main Zoom room, password zazen.
– Domyo and the Bright Way Zen Board
