Basking Ridge Votes No To Islamic Mosque

Basking Ridge, NJ -- Residents cheered, applauded and were giddy with delight after the Bernards Township Planning Board on Tuesday unanimously voted down the application to build an Islamic mosque on Church Street.

The Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, Inc. had submitted an application back in September 2012 to build a 4,250-square-foot Islamic mosque on Church Street, a historic section of the township.

“Party! Party! Party!” yelled one Church Street resident as she jumped up and down outside with other residents in a circle. They hugged, cheered and danced at the decision.

“Yes I’m happy,” Barbara Burger, who lives on Church Street said. “I wish them the best of luck and hope they find a property with six-plus acres to build. Or I hear they are building a mosque in Bridgewater, they can go there.”

“Yes I am very happy,” said Cynthia Huang, a township resident. “Church Street is already very busy with the school down the road letting out buses and traffic from the park after sports games. It’s already tough to get down that road.”

Hundreds of residents showed up Tuesday to hear the decision. So many residents they had to delay the meeting. Even before the 7:30 p.m. start time, residents were lined up down the hallway and looped back around and out the door as they waited to be scanned by police to access the council chambers.

The council chambers room, which holds 207 people, was filled to capacity leaving residents to fill another conference room down the hall where they could watch the meeting through a TV.

The conference room, which holds 27, was also filled to capacity still leaving many residents out in the hallway.

As a result the planning board, started the meeting at 8 p.m. then took a 15 minute recess to allow the remaining residents time to get home to watch the meeting from their own TV.

This meeting marked the first time planning board members were able to discuss the application together. Members discussed their opinions of the application for an hour before making a decision.

The preliminary and final site plan approvals were both unanimously voted down for a number of reasons, authorities said:

• Not providing a satisfactory buffer between the project and residential properties;
• Problems with the internal circulation of the site, such as width of parking spaces and how drivers were to manuveur around the parking lot;
• Having a non-compliant storm water plan;
• And having insufficient access for fire and emergency vehicles.

“My greatest concern is the lack of buffer on the plan,” said Barabra Kleiner, board member. “With residents on all three sides the buffer is extremely critical.”

Board Member Kippy Piedici expressed concern with the applicant’s proposed child drop off plan.

“I think the proposed drop off plan is a disaster waiting to happen,” she said.

Planning Chairman Jeffrey Plaza pointed to the applicant for the plan not getting approved.

“The burden is on the applicant to meet the guidelines, it is not the board’s job to tell you what to do,” Plaza said.

He also noted there were three and a half years of discussions where the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge had an opportunity to meet the guidelines, yet they failed to comply.

Now that the application has been voted down, the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge can either reapply or appeal the decision in court.

(Photo by Alexis Tarrazi. Residents packed into the council chambers to hear the decision on the Islamic mosque.)