Board Rejects Plan for Farview Terrace Mosque

The Planning Board voted 4-3 Thursday to deny an application to open a mosque in Paramus.

The El-Zahra Foundation had plans to convert an office building on 28 Farview Terrace into a house of worship. However, Selma and Stanley Mitchel, owners of neighboring , opposed the application due to their concerns that the proposed site didn't have enough parking.

Parking was the crux of the Board's decision, as laid out by Board Attorney John Ten Hoeve. Over the course of the months-long application, the Board heard testimony that the mosque would require between 66 and 73 parking spaces.

Only 30 spaces were available on-site. The El-Zahra Foundation had an agreement with the nearby to use 25 of their parking spaces, but Ten Hoeve advised the Board not to take those spaces into consideration when making their decision, explaining that the use of those spaces would require a separate application.

Robert Inglima, who represented the Mitchels, said he was gratified with the Board's decision, and wished the El-Zahra Foundation well.

"We hope that they're going to be able to find a place that provides them all the opportunities that they'll need to establish a vibrant and productive presence in the Paramus community," he said.

Mohammad Charaf, president of the El-Zahra Foundation, expressed surprise at the decision.

The Foundation's attorney, Carmine Alampi, said he was also "a little taken aback" by the decision. The Borough zoning ordinance specifically allows for a house of worship at 28 Farview Tarrace, he said.

"This is not putting something in a zone that doesn't belong," Alampi said.

The Foundation would have agreed to several conditions had the Board approved the application, including putting up a fence between the mosque property and the Mitchel property, agreeing not to make any changes to the second floor or the basement, and being subjected to periodic inspections.

Charaf said the Foundation would continue to seek a mosque location in Paramus.

"I think we have big support in the community," he said.

In June, more than a dozen people of the proposed mosque, many of them Paramus residents. Charaf moved to Paramus from Teaneck—where the Foundation teaches classes at a local mosque—in order to be closer to the planned mosque.

However, the mosque was undone by the Borough's parking requirements.

"Maybe the site you're building was the wrong place for this mosque at this time," said Board Chairman Martin Schwartz. Schwartz voted in favor of the application.