SHIRLEY, NY — The spiritual leader of the Muslim congregation tells Patch he does not believe the completed Islaamic Center of Mastic and Shirley will cause a spike in traffic in the surrounding are, as some residents have become concerned.
The concerns sprang from recent proposed developments that are planned for the peninsula, including the Beechwood development in Mastic Beach and the catering hall in Mastic.
But the imam notes that the congregation currently worships inside of a house converted into a mosque on William Floyd Parkway, just north of Stuart Road, in Shirley.
The grounds of the proposed center, which is under construction, are located across the parkway. It will have a mosque, community center, and parking.
As part of the plan, the two-story building will have a worship area, or prayer hall, which is about 3,000-square-feet, and there will be two libraries where people can come and study.
There is a podcast studio inside the libraries, so that people like the new generation, which likes to broadcast, to have a dialog for various topics beyond just religion to talk and express and to create content, according to Islam.
The plan includes a full NBA-style basketball court is the biggest highlight and the majority of the space of the building at seven to 8,000-square-feet.
"We got the dimensions matching the NBA court," he said. "This court will be fully hardwood flooring, where people will be able to play to the standards of NBA. So if they were to aspire to play in some leagues in the future, they can practice here."
In the full basement, there will be a pantry storage unit, essentially for canned goods and non-perishable food items. The goal is to — at least once a month — have a mission drive in the parking lot where people who need food can be served, Islam said.
Moving Ahead With Traffic Concerns
Whether traffic will be impacted is a very good question, and the center's leadership would love to address questions for the community, as was done at the town's planning and zoning board meetings, Imam Mehdad Islam said.
"Because this is a common question that people have: parking and traffic," Islam said, adding that a traffic engineer from Nelson, Pope, and Voorhies in Melville was hired for a full-on audit/survey/ traffic study for the project.
"What they did is they initially came to the current mosque, and they did a survey of the highest peak volume, which is a Friday in the month of Ramadan," he explained. "We have four or five days in the holiest month."
Wires were installed to count vehicles and the traffic patterns.
They calculated the amount of vehicles on the busiest day and the busiest month of the existing mosque, which has been operating since 2002.
The mosque is not being duplicated, but moved across the street, with the converted house likely rented out, as its original use.
In the calculation, the traffic engineer estimated around 60 or 70 cars were generated from the site.
"So he said that if the current operation is at 60 to 70," Islam explained, adding, "If over time, or if you have a bigger facility, you get 10 percent more, 15 percent more, 20 percent more."
"You're not breeding more Muslims by having a building," he said. "You're still the same people that are coming here that are going to be going there. It's not new people being bred."
"Sure, we're going to have birthdays and all those other celebrations," he said. "We can factor that in over decades of the different calculation. But at least for the current situation, if you have 70 cars today, 10 percent is seven more; 20 percent is 14 more."
"Your car count isn't increasing because the Muslim population is still pretty much the same in this community," he said.
"People aren't going to travel historically," he said, adding that congregations normally don't travel to far away places because it's not convenient. "We have to pray five times a day."
"So the local community is still the local community," he said, adding that the traffic isn't going to increase because it's the same cars that's going there. "It's just going to come to this side of the road instead of that side of the road."
In the study, it was calculated that 100,000 cars travel down William Floyd Parkway to Smith Point County Park in Shirley, according to Islam.
"If 100,000 cars are going down to the beach, what's 70 that's already going to the building anyway on the other side of the parkway?" he asked.
It was a no-brainer at the town's planning board hearing because the traffic argument holds no bearing, Islam says.
The center's leadership used a third-party engineering firm, which is a reputable organization, to get from the highest standards "just to tell the people we're trying to get to a situation where it's fair," he said.
"The report is fair for everyone to see it for themselves," he said.
A Plan For Parking
As far as parking is concerned, the center will host 114 parking spots.
"There's 114 chapters in the Quran, and therefore we have about 114 parking spots," Islam said. "It was just coincidentally that happened. Our congregation found that really coincidental, and they're like really excited about that."
"They're like, 'Oh, it's nice. You have this many chapters, and you have this many parking spot stalls,'" he added.
This past December 2025, the three-quarter-acre corner property, which is about 150 by 175 feet, on the other side of Tudor Road went up for sale, and it was purchased by the center.
It could be used to house another 70 to 80 parking stalls.
"We're almost hitting 200 parking stalls, which is more than any other mosque in Long Island," he added. "We're the second largest building, but we have more parking than the largest mosque."
The center's proactive stance is why political leaders like Town Supervisor Dan Panico, Councilwoman Karen Dunne-Kesnig, and Suffolk Legis. Jim Mazzarella like the project, Islam says.
"It's because we try to meet the community first and provide solutions first, and then ask for permits," adding that no one forced them to buy the property. "We had our permit to build this mosque before we bought that property. But the fact that I bought it, it makes everyone's lives more comfortable."
The preparation makes it possible so that just in case the congregation grows over two or three decades, the leadership can cater to them.
"That's how far ahead we're trying to address this parking/traffic concern ... for decades in advance," Islam said.
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