Following a hearing characterized by tension and sometimes open hostility, the Middletown Planning Board delayed making a decision on the Islamic Society of Monmouth County’s proposal to expand the parking lot of its mosque on Red Hill Road.
The society was asked to revise the plans and resubmit them to the board.
More than 100 people attended the board’s June 6 meeting on the Islamic Society’s proposal, which also included the introduction of a conceptual plan to build a 5,300-square-foot community center adjacent to the mosque.
Among the crowd were members of a group called Radical Islam (www.radicalislam.org), whose spokes-man, Ryan Mauro, had contacted local media prior to the board meeting and announced his intention during the hearing to air allegations of the Islamic Society’s possible involvement with a terrorist group.
Planning Board Vice Chairman Carl Rathjen began the meeting by reiterating the board’s public comment procedures.
“This board will not consider unreasonable, repetitive or disorderly objections,” he said, reading from the board’s bylaws. Throughout the hearing, two uniformed policemen were stationed near the main entrance, while another stood against the side wall closest to the applicants.
When Mauro attempted to address the board during the portion of the hearing dedicated to questions about the engineer’s testimony, he was immediately cut off by Rathjen, who reminded him of the bylaws and asked him to sit back down.
Aside from some relatively brief interruptions, however, the majority of the hearing proceeded without incident.
The plans under consideration call for an additional 105 parking spaces at the property, where 142 parking spaces already exist. The society has acquired adjacent property at 502 Red Hill Road to accommodate the additional parking spaces.
The expansion is necessary, explained Islamic Society Vice President Mohammed Mosaad, to alleviate parking and traffic problems in the area on the mosque’s busiest days.
During the most well-attended services, he said, which occur on Fridays and during the monthlong observance of Ramadan in the summer, the mosque has a significant increase in attendance. Because services usually run between noon and 2 p.m., many in the congregation are coming from work or other obligations and are therefore unable to carpool. The influx of cars during these times, he said, causes problems at the mosque and along Red Hill Road.
Bruce Putnoky, who lives across the street from the society’s proposed development site, was one of two neighboring residents to air objections at the meeting.
While agreeing that the parking and traffic issues are a cause for public concern, Putnoky said he is not completely in favor of the society’s plans for expansion.
“They desperately need additional parking,” he said. “We’ve had issues with cars double-parked, cars parked on the grass. The police were here nearly every week for a while. I guess that’s what prompted [the proposal].
“But there are zoning laws for a reason,” he added. “We need to make sure we retain the environmental integrity of Red Hill Road. There’s a lot of natural beauty here, and it needs to be protected.”
Putnoky, who has lived on Red Hill Road for 33 years, said he is also concerned about issues of privacy, property values and quality of life.
“I have floor-to-ceiling glass on the side of my home that faces the mosque,” he said, “and the proposal calls for 21 parking spaces that will face head-on toward me. The way it’s designed, there will be headlights shining into my living room.”
The society’s future plans for the community center, which would be attached to the mosque’s south side, also include the building of a 19,961-square-foot plaza area, on which the organization would hold outdoor events like picnics. Originally intending to have the plaza set off from the parking area by a split-rail fence, the society was directed by the board to demarcate the border with a curb instead.
During his presentation to the board, SharifAly, the engineer for the application, also requested a variance for the municipal ordinance that requires a 50-foot buffer zone between parking areas and residential areas.
After Putnoky and another neighbor’s testimony, however, the board decided to deny the variance and require the society to include the full buffer in the plans.
The board also instructed the society to work toward an equitable compromise with neighbors by investigating possibilities that would make the project more acceptable to nearby residents, such as adding landscaping and fencing along the borders of the site.
Putnoky said that following the meeting, he had been contacted by Patrick Healy, the attorney representing the society before the Planning Board, and was pleased that the board had included him in its decision.
The Islamic Society is expected to present its revised proposal at next month’s hearing on July 11.