Mosque-Islamic School Proposal Goes Before Toms River Zoners Thursday: Report

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A proposal to build an Islamic school and new mosque at the site of an existing mosque in Toms River is drawing oppostion from neighbors, according to a report.

The Asbury Park Press reported an application by Masjid Balil to build a 51,040-square-foot mosque and 17-classroom school on its Route 9 property is scheduled to be heard by the township's Board of Adjustment on Thursday, Feb. 23. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Masjid Balil, which has owned the property on Route 9 since 1996, is seeking a use variance for the project because a 2009 change in Toms River's zoning ordinances requires at least 10 acres of property for any house of worship. The property where Masjid Balil sits is about 5.5 acres, the report said; half of it is zoned highway-business, the other half is zoned residential.

Mohamed Nabeel Elmasry, the spokesman for Masjid Balil, also known as the Muslim Society of the Jersey Shore, told the Press there is a growing Muslim population at the shore and more parents are seeking an Islamic school for their children. The closest school is 50 miles away in Camden County, Elmasry told the Press.

The proposal is not the first to run afoul of the township's 2009 zoning change; Toms River remains mired in a dispute with Rabbi Moshe Gourarie over the rabbi's application for a use variance to site the Chabad Jewish Center on property along Church Roadwhere Gourarie currently lives.

That dispute, which includes a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Gourarie, is headed to mediation. But the township's zoning ordinances with regard to religious entities are still under investigation by the Justice Department.

Read more of the Press's report about the Islamic school and mosque proposal here.

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