In front of one of the largest crowds in its history, the West Windsor Zoning Board began reviewing plans for a mosque to be constructed by the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) New Jersey on Old Trenton Road.
While the board heard testimony from IIS’s engineer, architect, and traffic engineer, as well as questions from the audience on the matter, the April 7 hearing was not completed by 10:30 p.m., and the meeting will be continued on Thursday, May 5.
A crowd of more than 100 filled the room for the hearing. Extra chairs were brought in, but people still lined the walls and spilled into the hallway. 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.
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 from the township’s Zoning Department 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.
The proposed two-story building would have a footprint of 15,000 square feet. The 7,000 square feet of space IIS now has on the first floor of a building in a commercial complex on Princeton-Hightstown Road cannot accommodate the youth programs, community programs, and even the free medical clinic it plans to open to the community — in addition to its religious services.
The site on Old Trenton Road not only gives them the space needed, it is located within West Windsor, where most of their members choose to live because of the township’s diversity, IIS officials say.
“We want our mosque to work for us and our community,” Simin Syed, a member of IIS, told the Zoning Board in her opening statement. “It is a community whose donations fund the institute in its entirety.”
In her five-minute statement to the board, Syed highlighted IIS’s role in the community, saying much of what is heard in the national news about Muslims is negative and is not an accurate reflection of what IIS is about. She said that the word “Islam” means peace, and that IIS believes in living within the community as peaceful neighbors.
She said IIS is actively engaged in interfaith partnerships with Congregation Beth Chaim in West Windsor and St. Anthony’s Church in Hightstown. She said IIS members hope to raise their children as good citizens of the community.
Jonathan Heilbrunn, of the law firm Heilbrunn, Pape, & Goldstein, who represents IIS, said that for the past 15 years IIS “has been the neighbors” of the residents within the room for the hearing. But he also said that for the past 15 years, IIS members have already held Sunday school (on Saturdays) and prayers and have driven through the same intersections they would need to drive through to get to the new site — all with no problem.
“The current site is a 9-iron shot from where we propose to build this mosque,” said Heilbrunn.
Adnan Khan, IIS engineer, told the board that the plans call for 219 parking spaces on the site, which is a total of 7.17 acres. The site does not contain wetlands, and the proposed building would be 29,450 square feet. The site would contain one lane in and two lanes out — one each for left and right turns.
A 25-foot portion of the open space on the site would be dedicated to the county. “All of the setbacks are based after the dedication,” Khan said.
The site would contain a monument sign that is 38 square feet and 4 feet high. The building would connect to municipal utilities.
There would also be “very extensive landscaping,” including islands in the parking areas, where trees would be planted. Along the southwest property line, there would be a 45-foot landscaping, while the building would be set back by more than 85 feet.
Khan also said that there are about 15 to 25 participants in each of the five daily prayers held at the mosque, with about 120 to 150 participants attending the Friday weekly prayer between 1 and 2 p.m. He said the two major holidays, one of which falls after the month of Ramadan, will attract no more than 200 participants.
During Ramadan, the night prayer will generate between 110 and 150 people each night.
The “Sunday school,” which is held on Saturdays, provides religious education to between 115 and 125 students from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There are between 10 and 14 students at each level, ranging from 7 to 15 years in age.
The building would be oriented with the entrance facing the Elements development, Khan testified.
Khan also discussed the floor plans. The ground floor would contain a 3,700-square foot prayer room, with a 3,655-square-foot activities room next door, separated by a permanent wall. The multipurpose room is where the IIS would host interfaith activities. For daily prayers, however, there is a smaller prayer room of 390 square feet, which is located near the larger prayer room for bigger services.
The first floor would also contain a food-handling area. There will be no cooking done on the premises, Khan said.
The second floor contains the religious education room with adjacent classroom space. The space would be used for Sunday school assemblies and for senior citizen activities, like bingo and ping-pong. The second floor would also have a bedroom for the Imam, or high priest, and a spare bedroom for guests or for children, if the high priest had any, Khan said.
A portion of the second floor can be used for high holidays, when there is a higher attendance of people, Khan added. Contrary to what some have speculated, there will not be more than one activity taking place at the mosque at any given time, Khan said.
The area of confusion for most residents, however, was the actual number of people who belong to the IIS mosque. There was a discrepancy in the report submitted to the Zoning Board, which used the word “families” instead of “individual members,” Heilbrunn said. Residents still raised concerns about specific numbers.
Tahir Zafar, a member of IIS, testified that there are currently 120 individual members, with about 50 to 60 families — most from West Windsor. However, it is hard to get an exact number because “we have families who are not members but come for Sunday school,” explained Zafar. “But they have to register,” and there are limited openings in the religious education classes.
Zafar also responded to questions about outside activities. There would be no prayer held outside, and the only outdoor activities that would be playgrounds for students, he said.
Zoning Board member Henry Jacobsohn asked whether the mosque planned to have a school associated with it — similar to parochial schools associated with churches in the Christian faith. IIS members told them they did not plan to have a school or a daycare.
Board members also asked about the imam’s apartment, and whether it was comparable to a rectory. Responded Heilbrunn: “Instead of a separate, free-standing building, we have incorporated it within the building.”
Resident Gary Chisamore asked why the IIS chose the Old Trenton Road location instead of other places residents felt were more suitable.
Syed said there was a list of six to eight properties that IIS examined but were not suitable for various reasons, including lack of sewer systems, or they just “didn’t work out.” IIS officials said they would submit a list of those properties and reasons why they were deemed unsuitable.
When residents began asking about the amount of property taxes that could be paid currently on the property, Heilbrunn said that “the amount of property taxes is irrelevant to this application. The issue is appropriate use of the land” for the zoning variance.
Elements resident Keith Corkedale asked whether there would be an audible call to prayer that plays outside of the mosque at each of the five daily prayer times. Zafar said there would be no physical call, other than on speakers inside the prayer room. Nothing would be heard from outside of the building.
The reason the IIS needs four times more space is mostly because there is no space for religious education, explained Zafar. “We do not have room for the children,” he said. “They are sitting on the floors, writing on the floors. This is one of the main reasons.”
Zoning Board member Curtis Hoberman pointed out that when Princeton Alliance Church moved in on Schalks Crossing Road in Plainsboro, “they grew.” He said the board must have a “careful understanding of the possibility for growth” when making a decision.
Zoning Board member Ed Steele, however, said that the board must only determine whether the use warrants a zoning variance and should not examine future expansion in the future, which would have to come back before the board.
Anne Studholme, of the Manewitz & Studholme law firm with offices in Princeton and New York, who represents the group of Elements residents, said the possible growth and other factors, like population, traffic issues, and other impacts must be studied.
She asked questions about the membership, including whether the listed members included children and adults or just adults.
Zafar said that because the concept of membership is not fixed, it is hard to calculate the attendees. He also said that in some cases, Muslims pray at the mosque that is nearest to them at any given point in the day, which means some people may come to pray at the IIS mosque who do not live in the area. Similarly, some who may be members at IIS may pray at another mosque at any given point in the day.
However, at most, officials expect about 200 twice a year for high holidays. “We know exactly how many children there are in the classes,” he said, because of registration.
“You really don’t expect to grow more than a percentage point per year?” asked Studholme, to which Zafar responded, “Yes.”
“If we had to grow, we would have to go to the board for an expansion,” reiterated Heilbrunn.
Still, “the intensity of the use is really important to the negative effects” the site could have on the area, argued Studholme, who said that as part of the zoning variance, IIS must discuss the negative impacts and prove why they are not substantial. “I don’t see how you could grant this use variance without some way to quantify the degree of use and the degree of negative effects,” Studholme said.
Zoning Board member Susan Abbey said that determination of whether there would be too many people coming to the site can be looked at another way — by how many people would be coming to the site under current zoning.
While the space is empty, current zoning allows up to a three-story office building. Calculating how many people would work in the office building under approved zoning would give an idea of the biggest number of people the site could handle — which would be more than called for in IIS’s plans, she said.
However, Resident Dave Twamley asked whether the mosque would be as beneficial to the community as the health center formerly approved for the site would have been. “How can we change the master plan for a group of 40 people?” he asked. “How is it beneficial to the community?”
The former owner, Brian Brouda — with whom IIS is under contract for purchase — received Zoning Board approval in 2004 to construct a two-story, 53,153-square foot health and fitness club at the same site. The site would have included a cafe, spa, beauty salon, and a 208-car parking lot. Those plans were never developed. The mosque would be smaller (30,000 square feet versus 53,000 square feet), with more parking.
Resident Gerald Spielman said that Old Trenton Road is already a busy road. “Do you envision the need for another traffic light, or police” to direct traffic, he asked.
Khan said that IIS currently hires its own traffic officers during the two high holidays and would continue to do so at the new site.
Ali Qureshi, the architect for the IIS mosque, said the building would be made of a stucco material. The height would be 27 feet to the top of the building, while the top of the minaret would be 55 feet.
While board members wanted to know about the height of the basement, Qureshi said, “we don’t know whether we can have a basement here.”
“It may be eight feet heigh, but at this time, I don’t know,” he said, adding that testing to determine whether a basement could be included had not yet been completed. Either way, IIS was not intending to use the basement for more services or activities, but for storage.
Township Planner John Madden told the board that it could include a condition that the basement only be used for storage and set a maximum height.
Qureshi said IIS will try to meet as many LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) requirements as possible, although that level of detail had not been examined.
Resident Rhonda Corkedale asked about the free medical clinic that IIS plans to open to the community from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. “Are there any regulations in the township as far as (medical) waste?” she asked.
Zafar said that the free clinic would offer general examinations and advice. It would be run by fully licensed personnel — members of IIS who are physicians and will donate their time and expertise.
The Zoning Board also heard testimony from IIS’s traffic engineer, Duane Nelson, who said he found two main peaks of demand — Friday from 1 to 2 p.m., and on Saturday for the religious education, which runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
He said he found a maximum of 100 vehicles entering for Friday services, and 80 vehicles coming and going to the religious education — for a total of 160 cars.
“The mosque will generate substantially less traffic than the morning and evening peak traffic hours, compared with the health club” that was approved in 2004 by the Zoning Board at that location.
The road would have “very acceptable levels of service” during hours of operation at the mosque, he said. “Overall, I see the traffic impacts of the mosque to be acceptable.” The three-story office building that could also be built on site under current zoning would cause “significantly greater” traffic than the mosque.
In addition, Nelson said, “a portion of the traffic going to the mosque is using Old Trenton and Princeton-Hightstown roads already” to go to the mosque’s current location.
When asked, Nelson said he compared the traffic study conducted by the health club at the time. Nelson said he also added numbers to that traffic study to account for the people who have since moved into the Elements.
