Consultants for the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) spent the May 5 meeting of the West Windsor Zoning Board answering questions about the reasoning behind the location chosen for its new mosque and the projected growth the institute will see as a result.
No decision was made on May 5, but the board scheduled a continuation of the hearing for Thursday, June 2, so it could hold deliberations and public comment.
IIS wants to develop 7.17 acres of currently vacant land at 2030 Old Trenton Road into a house of worship. The plans would require a use variance because the property is currently located in the RO-1 zone, which permits research and office uses.
According to the plans submitted, IIS would construct a facility that includes a house of worship, multi-purpose hall, offices, kitchen, adult social area including a kitchen and housing for its spiritual leader, and a health care facility at the site.
The proposed site is near Windsor Center Drive in East Windsor and Dorchester Drive/Dantone Boulevard in West Windsor.
IIS consultants’ comments during the second Zoning Board hearing on the plans, which require a use variance for constructing the mosque on Old Trenton Road, still did not satisfy the concerns of opponents and some board members, who questioned whether the new mosque would attract more congregants to the area — and thus be a detriment to traffic and other quality of life issues.
Zoning Board members Curtis Hoberman said that creating a facility that is bigger and contains nice features “could be attractive to a person who may be a non-worshiper or someone who wants a smaller, community feel” to worshiping, who then may decide to join the new mosque. “When you provide the community with expanded services,” growth can happen, he said.
Complicating matters during the hearing was the confusion over the distinction between the “attendees” of the mosque and the “membership.” While the terms were used interchangeably, IIS officials explained they calculate attendees by the number of people who regularly attend services.
However, Muslims are welcomed to attend services at mosques near their location throughout the day, IIS members explained. So, for example, if a Muslim works in another town and wants to attend a daily prayer occurring during business hours, he or she might worship in a mosque located within that town, and not in his or her hometown mosque.
IIS officials said they had 120 “attendees,” and estimated that the number would grow to 200 within five years and to 250 anticipated attendees within 10 years. They testified that the number specifies adults, and that the number of children attending “Sunday School,” held on Saturdays, would be a separate number of 125. Those classes, however, would not coincide with religious services held for adults, they said. IIS officials also estimated that about 50 percent of its current attendees come from West Windsor.
Still, residents asked for guarantees from IIS consultants that their projected membership growth would not exceed the estimated increase, but IIS officials could not provide such guarantees. Residents cited another figure used by IIS officials — that 400 Muslims lived in West Windsor and surrounding areas, including Plainsboro and Cranbury. IIS officials said they included that number solely for demographic illustration.
However, they testified that because multiple facilities were located in nearby towns like Hamilton, Lawrence, South Brunswick, and Ewing, and they already had an established membership from the local area, that growth would be limited. Responding to residents who compared the situation to the mosque on Route 1 in South Brunswick, IIS officials said that the Route 1 mosque was the largest mosque in the state, and that the one in West Windsor would not nearly be as prominent.
They also said that the footprint of the building, and the constraints imposed by township ordinance regarding developable land on the site, would make future expansion unlikely.
In addition, “the actual size and site plan for that mosque will have to come back for site plan approval” once a use variance is granted by the Zoning Board, said Zoning Board Attorney Edwin Schmierer. “That would lock them into a size.” And if IIS officials wanted to expand, they would have to seek another approval.
Further, “the community we are serving today in (the East Windsor location) are the same people moving, and we have allowed for a little bit of growth,” said Tahir Zafar of IIS.
Still, Zoning Board member Alice Ng questioned whether growth could occur in the future. “Would you not expect that with a larger building — much larger than the current one — there wouldn’t be growth?”
Zafar compared the move to that of a family moving from a three-bedroom apartment to a new single-family home. The family will still have the same number of people after the move, he said.
The hearing focused on the testimony of IIS Planner John McDonough, who went through a process of elimination to explain why he believed other possible locations were not suitable for the mosque and explained how the mosque fits criteria that show it is an appropriate use for the area.
McDonough described the properties around the proposed mosque location, including the Princeton Arms shopping center, the Elements of West Windsor development, a credit union, and an autism center. “We have a variety of uses in this area, certainly a mixed-use area,” said McDonough. Primarily, houses of worships are located within residential areas, and are located “immediately adjacent to residential” communities, he explained.
Geometrically, the site for the proposed mosque is conforming with local ordinances. It meets the lot width standards and has excessive depth — more than required by the ordinance. The building height is proposed to two-stories high.
Under statute, houses of worships, including mosques, are “inherently beneficial uses,” because “religious freedoms as public interest are being served,” McDonough said.
Because the proposed mosque would be less dense than a 50,000 square foot fitness center that already has approval for the site (but was never built), the traffic report does not indicate there would be a large traffic impact on the area, and it would not cause flooding on the adjacent properties. It is a “very calm, very quiet form of land use.”
“There are no formal outdoor play areas,” said McDonough. “We’re not looking at any outdoor activities.”
In addition, the capacity of the site itself is limited because township ordinances allow up to 40 percent of maximum impervious coverage on the site. Currently, the building is under that limit, at 33 percent, but could only expand up to 7 percent without having to come back for a variance.
“There are not going to be attendees flying here from other areas,” McDonough said. “This is certainly not introducing a regional mosque.”
In an effort to satisfy neighbors and concerns from residents, McDonough offered a list of conditions that IIS would include as part of the use variance, which included keeping the basement storage only; not having a daycare; having no speakers or amplified noise outside; not having any surgery performed at the on-site medical clinic; and installing a berm system.
Even though the mosque would have been a permitted use in about 90 percent of the town, there are various reasons why those areas are unsuitable for the mosque, McDonough said. He presented a visual representation on a copy of the township’s zoning maps, beginning with the 90 percent of the township where a mosque would be permitted. After introducing each of the criteria, he showed a newer version of the map that removed the lots or areas that would not be suitable.
The criteria for choosing a site included that the lot size needed to be more than 3.3 acres to conform with ordinances and to allow for appropriate development of the building. Lots that did not have available space or available land were not considered.
Then, the land had to be located within three miles of the existing facility, which knocked out the northern quadrant of the township. Areas where cell towers or other utilities were in the way were also removed from the possible areas for location of a mosque.
That brought the list down to eight pieces of property within West Windsor. “Not a single one is available for sale,” said McDonough. “This piece of property in question is.”
The Old Trenton Road site was also better than a list of possible locations IIS officials specifically looked into purchasing. A site at 410 Princeton-Hightstown Road was rejected because it did not have much greater parking than at the current location; it only had 90 available parking spaces, while the proposed location on Old Trenton Road has more than 200.
A site on Village Road East was rejected because of wetlands constraints, its small size, and its location within a congested residential area, said McDonough.
A property at 20 Lake Drive in East Windsor, where warehouse flex space was available, was rejected because it allowed only 64 parking spaces.
McDonough said another site on Route 130 in East Windsor, at the location of a former Chevrolet dealership, was rejected because it was only a little more than two acres in size, in addition to being environmentally sensitive.
The current location, at 379 Princeton-Hightstown Road, was offered for sale to IIS, but the location is too small, at 7,000 square feet, and there are other problems with the location, McDonough said.
Residents criticized one of the reasons IIS chose the Old Trenton Road location — that IIS wanted a new facility to be located within three miles of its current location on Princeton-Hightstown Road in East Windsor, on the boarder with West Windsor.
Referring to that reason, resident Steve Smith said, “I would ask the board to take that into consideration. This is New Jersey.”
In response to comments made about the higher density of the approved gym and fitness club on site, Smith raised other questions about possible detrimental impacts on neighbors. “How many health clubs or offices run 24/7?” he asked.
He also pointed out that the building could become taller, and the parking could increase, and that there is technically room for growth on the site.
Plainsboro resident Jai Ramnath, who said she recently purchased a home within the Elements, cited her own experience with growth of her congregation’s temple, which did not expect to grow from 200 members to 5,000.
“Have you at any time considered relaxing those limitations,” asked resident Harry Zimblast, referring to the requirement that the mosque be within three miles of its current location. He also said that when calculations and projections are made within the business world, there is data presented that shows how confident officials are in those projections.
“What is your level of confidence to stay within the 3 to 5 percent level of growth?” Zimblast asked, referring to the growth estimates provided by IIS officials.
In response, Zoning Board chairman John Roeder said that “you can’t do that with human beings. You can never predict who is going to come to church on Sunday.”
Resident Keith Corkedale asked what the maximum occupancy level would be — information IIS officials said they would bring to the next meeting.
Corkedale also questioned the mosque’s designation as an “inherently beneficial use. I don’t understand how this is an inherent benefit to West Windsor,” he said. Another resident asked the same question, saying that only half of the attendees — about 40 people — in West Windsor would benefit from the mosque’s location on Old Trenton Road, compared with the 27,000 residents living within the township.
“An inherently beneficial use is inherently beneficial in any community,” responded McDonough.
Schmierer also provided clarification. “A house of worship is reviewed as inherently beneficial to the state,” he said. “It’s viewed as something inherently good for the state of New Jersey, no matter where it’s located.”
The attendance for the meeting was noticeably smaller than the crowd of more than 100 who filled the room for the first hearing in April, but the turnout still filled the seats on May 5.
Many of the audience members were residents of the adjacent Elements development, who have banded together as the Friends of West Windsor Master Zoning Plan and have hired an attorney, Anne Studholme, of the Manewitz & Studholme law firm with offices in Princeton and New York.
At the next hearing, the Zoning Board will hear from its own professionals in addition to hearing from the public. IIS officials said they would submit revised plans that included more buffering to ease the concerns of nearby residents as well as submit more information about why the other sites they have been looking at since 2004 are not suitable for the IIS mosque.
