We would like to think that the outrage recently expressed by residents about a parking lot being built by an Islamic center in Searingtown was based merely on concerns about traffic and confusion over Town of North Hempstead zoning procedures.
But we can’t help thinking there might be something more at work.
The Shelter Rock Road Islamic Center has begun construction on a parking lot holding 77 cars at the corner of Shelter Rock Road and I.U. Willets Road in Searingtown as part of a move from Mineola.
Residents attending a Town Board meeting in which the project was not on the agenda said they were never informed about the proposed construction of the religious center and complained there was no public hearing on the proposal.
But, in fact, there was a public hearing – 20 years ago. For a synagogue.
Michael Levine, the town planning commissioner, pointed out that the meeting 20 years ago was well attended. And the proposal, made by North Hills Synagogue, was approved for a site that has also housed the Boy Scouts and later a synagogue.
Roslyn resident Peter Heller, along with a handful of other residents who spoke, said he had been living in the area for more than 40 years and never received notice, not even at the time of the 1998 decision.
Many who didn’t come up to speak yelled out in agreement from the audience.
But town officials said a traffic study was done before the project was first approved.
Town Attorney Elizabeth Botwin also noted there is no legal basis for the town to take further action.
“We are faced with a very unusual situation where the developer, the owner, took such a long time to go ahead with the development, but it was approved and something that was authorized,” Botwin said. “When you have a place of public assembly you have to supply parking and a religious facility is permitted to be constructed in a residential area.”
This is not the first time that residents have objected to an Islamic center in the Town of North Hempstead.
Residents objected to the Hillside Islamic Center’s purchase of four homes in New Hyde Park to expand the mosque’s parking lot and to the height of the four decorative minarets on the building in a series of meetings in 2010.
The town’s Board of Zoning Appeals – in the face of resident opposition – rejected the mosque’s expansion plan in 2010, saying its proximity to homes conflicted with zoning rules.
But the center moved forward under a federal law that relaxes zoning restrictions for houses of worship in residential neighborhoods.
That law, the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act, was passed unanimously by Congress in 2000.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the approval followed “hearings in which Congress found that houses of worship, particularly those of minority religions and start-up churches, were disproportionately affected, and in fact often were actively discriminated against, by local land use decisions.”
The Justice Department went on to say that “Congress further found that zoning authorities frequently were placing excessive burdens on the ability of congregations to exercise their faiths in violation of the Constitution.”
It is worth noting that this discrimination took place before 9/11 and the rise of anti-Islamic feelings in this country.
And before the election of a president who campaigned on a ban of Muslims entering the country followed by an administration that has targeted for criticism virtually anyone who is not a white, Christian male – Muslims and Hispanics especially.
It is also worth noting that Russia prominently featured attacks on Muslims in its campaign to divide Americans during the presidential election and undermine the election process, as detailed in indictments brought by Robert Mueller’s team.
We recognize that residents don’t need concerns about a group’s religious beliefs to oppose development in their neighborhood.
Practically, any development of any size engenders at least some opposition. And, in some cases, the concerns of residents are legitimate. Town and village planners are not perfect.
But we urge opponents of projects in this time of polarization to take extra care that their opposition is based on the merits – and not someone’s skin color, country of origin or religious beliefs.
And consider what it would like if that animosity was directed at you.
