The West Windsor Zoning Board will debate whether the proposed Institute for Islamic Studies (IIS) mosque on Old Trenton Road meets the criteria of an inherently beneficial use during a fourth hearing on Thursday, June 16.
That issue, as well as a maximum building occupancy of 483 the IIS has accepted as a condition, were among the debated items at the third hearing on the matter on June 2.
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, 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 tension that has been present throughout the hearings continued at the June 2 meeting, which began with the Zoning Board addressing allegations against one of its own members. A group of 24 residents submitted a letter prior to the hearing alleging that board member Shawki Salem was biased and should recuse himself from participating or voting on the application.
However, Zoning Board Attorney Ed Schmierer said he had the opportunity to review the transcripts of the prior hearings and observed the meetings personally and found “there’s no basis whatsoever for Mr. Salem to step down.”
“My advice would be to continue to allow all members of the board” to participate in the hearing, said Schmierer.
Salem said he was surprised to hear about the accusations. “It is really very unfortunate and really un-American to do this,” he said, adding that he took an oath “to do what’s best for the community and for the town” when he votes on matters before the board. Shawki, who declined to specify his religion, saying it was irrelevant, said he has never been a member of the IIS mosque and is not a member of any mosque elsewhere.
During the three hours of continued testimony, it was also revealed that the IIS wants to include an outside basketball court on its site to allow its Sunday school children a specific area to participate in recreational activities. Opponents immediately jumped on the addition, pointing to IIS’s earlier testimony that no formal recreational activities would take place outside of the structure.
Also on June 2, IIS’s planner John McDonough presented a list of new and revised documents on behalf of IIS to the board, as requested during prior meetings. That included a document with the other sites IIS considered before choosing the Old Trenton Road location, a map of nearby mosques, and a list of conditions they would accept to help ease the concerns of their neighbors.
The new plans rotated the building by 90 feet so that the front door of the building faces away from the Elements development, which increases the buffering between the two sites. The setbacks on the site increased to 116.21 feet.
With regard to the maximum occupancy, McDonough also explained a set of documents showing attendance numbers for each of the rooms in the mosque, which ended up causing a discrepancy.
Zoning Board member Curtis Hoberman pointed out that the maximum occupancy in the downstairs prayer room showed 250 people, while the upstairs classroom and activity space that would be used for extra room for services only on high holidays showed 311 occupants. Together, that would be more than the 483 attendees that IIS said it would accept as a limit. “How do these numbers mesh with the 483 number?” asked Hoberman.
McDonough said that IIS will limit itself to the 483 number and that IIS officials would revise the document to reflect that number. IIS officials also maintained they would not hold any two activities at once in the building.
“The board has the authority under case law to impose that condition,” said Peter Klouser of the Heilbrunn, Pape, & Goldstein law firm, which represents IIS. “The building, under any circumstance, will never be occupied by more than 483 people.”
Zoning Board member Alice Ng asked how IIS would control the number of people coming onto its site. What if 490 people came, she asked.
McDonough cited case law that found that “policing by the applicant was a reasonable” condition to impose, and said that IIS officials would ensure that the crowd did not exceed 483 people.
In addition, IIS officials testified that most of the workshops and other activities that are held at the mosque attract a crowd of fewer than 100 people. “Most of these activities, except the interfaith activities, are less than 50 [people],” said Tahir Zafar of IIS. The interfaith activities with nearby Jewish and Catholic congregations generally attract between 30 to 40 members of each faith and rarely exceed 120 people. He also said he did not believe that those numbers would increase in the new facility.
McDonough also reiterated that there would be no outside weddings, although wedding ceremonies would be performed indoors.
The basketball court was added so that students who attend religious education classes on Saturday have a hard surface to play on. “Originally, the plan was to have unorganized outdoor play,” said McDonough.
Township landscape architect Dan Dobromilsky said “there is some concern about a basketball court because of the noise it could create,” but that because the court would be offset by 300 feet from the nearest home, his concerns were alleviated.
McDonough also testified that noise regulations limit the maximum daytime noise to 65 decibels, which drops to 50 decibels at night. From 100 feet away, the sound created by a basketball bounce is 35 decibels. The nearest residence to the court would be 300 feet away. When residents asked about crowd noise, McDonough replied, “The human voice is not regulated.”
McDonough also presented a map of all other sites IIS looked into before deciding upon the Old Trenton Road location, including a list of why each of those sites was unsuitable.
Another potential site that was not mentioned at a prior meeting was added to that list — a site on the north end of the township on Meadow Road. That site was more than five miles away from the current location, and more than 10 miles from most of IIS’s members. In addition, the seller wanted $900,000 cash up front and for the sale to close within 30 days, McDonough said, adding that officials “know from the process here that that’s unreasonable.”
“It is not practical to search for a site beyond the applicant’s three-mile radius,” he added.
There were still concerns from some board members and from the public about the potential for new congregants to be drawn into West Windsor to attend services and activities at the new mosque. Hoberman noted that there is no mosque between Lakewood and West Windsor, which would generate a “greater catchment” of people going to IIS. Hoberman said officials might want to consider that point when it comes to potential growth.
The board also heard from its own consultants, most of whom said their small list of concerns was addressed by IIS in their revised documents. They had little to say about the application.
John Madden, the board’s planner, referred to McDonough’s testimony, during which he presented case law describing the criteria for a use to be inherently beneficial — an argument that the IIS has maintained, but opponents have fought.
Referring to one of the criteria that states the use must promote public morals, Madden said, “What would promote public morals more than a house of worship?” He also pointed to the list of services the mosque would be provided to the community, including its senior center, which would be open to residents of all faiths, not just Muslims.
Madden also testified that houses of worship are allowed in most residential areas of the township. Responding to questioning from board members about other areas of the township where houses of worship are permitted in nonresidential areas, he told the board that the ROR zone, which does permit houses of worship and in which the Jewish Community Campus and a Presbyterian Church are located, was “created to accommodate those uses.”
This is why the ROR zone permits houses of worship, while the RO-1 zone, the research office district where the mosque would be located, does not. The RO-1 zone is not considered to be a residential zone, though the township does permit “semi-public uses” in that zone. While West Windsor does not specifically include houses of worship in its list of “semi-public uses,” other towns do, he said.
When it comes to the parking, the 219 spaces on site to accommodate the maximum of 483 people in the building, the parking was “more than adequate.”
“They’ve addressed all the negative criteria I had by the conditions they have offered,” said Madden.
Township professionals also testified that there is a section of township code that provides exemptions to height requirements in any zone for church spires. While the height limit in the RO-1 zone is 45 feet, church spires are permitted to stand as tall as 55 feet in height in any zone. The minaret proposed by the mosque would stand at 55 feet.
Residents were not convinced, however, that the mosque would not attract new members, and with it, more traffic and attendees to services in West Windsor. They questioned how the mosque could control and limit the number of people coming to services to ensure no more than 483 people would attend services.
One resident, Joe Costa, also raised concerns about the mosque’s practices after he went to the IIS’s current location in East Windsor during a Friday night service in April, where he said he watched more than the number of cars that IIS had testified drive onto the site for services. He also said they were directed to park illegally in fire lanes.
“I’m assuming what you do to your current neighbors is what you are going to do to your future neighbors,” he said.
Another resident, Daniel Weitz, asked whether IIS officials were concerned with the location of the basketball courts on site — a location he says backs directly against a hunting area. “You’re not concerned with the fact that hunting takes place right up to that property line?”
Resident Harry Zimbalist said he worried that the vacant land adjacent to the property could be bought in the future, where a variance could be granted for the mosque to expand. Zoning Board members pointed out that IIS would have to come back to the board for that, but Zimbalist maintained it was still possible.
Referring to testimony from a traffic consultant at a prior meeting, resident Keith Corkedale asked how it was possible to get a maximum of 483 people on site by only 80 cars that the traffic engineer said would travel to the site.
IIS officials clarified that the number was a maximum number. Most times, they would have far fewer people. It is during the two high holidays where they would have a larger crowd.
IIS traffic engineer Duane Nelson also said that it was during the Saturday school where 80 cars would come in and out of the site. On Friday prayer services, 120 vehicles would come in and out of the site. For the two high holidays each year, Nelson did not estimate a number of cars coming to the site. “This will occur a few times a year during off-peak hours,” and at these times, the IIS will pay to have police officers directing traffic, Nelson said. “I don’t think the impact would be tremendous.”
While the room was mostly filled with opponents, there were some supporters.
Rabbi Eric B. Wisnia, of Congregation Beth Chaim, made his comments in support of the mosque because he would not be able to attend the next meeting, when public comment will be held. He said officials at Beth Chaim voted unanimously to support the application because they felt it is an inherently beneficial use to the community. He said that IIS engages in interfaith activities and that IIS has been a friend to the community. He also said that religious institutions have helped mold the community.
He said the health club that was previously granted a zoning variance for the same site would have been a “much heavier use.”
“It is very strange and distressing that a number of people are complaining so much” about a house of worship, he said. The mosque would be a “benefit and not a detriment to the community,” he added.
Opponents argue, however, that it is case law that has found houses of worship to be inherently beneficial uses and that Municipal Land Use Law does not designate them as such. Anne Studholme, an attorney representing a group of residents who oppose the mosque, will present a brief and make a presentation on that issue on June 16.
IIS attorney Klouser almost had an agreement worked out with Studholme to address the residents’ concerns before the meeting. They took a five-minute recess to have a discussion in another room, but came back without an agreement, and Studholme will present her arguments on June 16.
