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Application for Islamic Center of Rockland’s 30,000 Square-foot Expansion Plan Set For Sept. 24, Despite Objections By Jewish Community Members
By Tina Traster
Residents along Mountainview Avenue and the surrounding area in Valley Cottage who are fighting a controversial expansion proposed by the Islamic Center of Rockland requested that a Sept. 24th appearance be rescheduled due to the Rosh Hashanah, part of the High Holy Days Jews celebrate.
But the Town of Clarkstown’s Planning Board did not respond to the request, and the application remains on the schedule for 7 pm on Sept. 24.
“The evening of September 24th is the second day of Rosh Hashonah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year and the start of the High Holy Days,” the letter to the Planning Board said. “Most Jewish people gather for a large feast on that evening, as the next day is the Fast of Gedaliah, a dawn to dusk fast day. Proceeding with the application on the evening of the 24th would likely preclude participation by Jewish members of the community who desire to be heard on this application and would prejudice their ability to participate in a public hearing on this controversial application.”
The letter continued: “As the application concerns construction in the R-160 conservation zone as well as an application for an expansion of a non-residential structure on a town road (as opposed to a state or county road), it is essential that the Planning Board permit full participation in the public hearing and not exclude members of the Jewish community.”
RCBJ reached out to the town for comment but did not receive a reply.
The Islamic Center of Rockland (ICR) built a mosque two decades ago on Mountainview Avenue on land zoned for conservation, known as R-160 in the town code. Through its landowner the Rockland Muslim Trust, Inc., the mosque is proposing to expand its 10,000 square-foot facility into a far more extensive compound by adding a 1,750 square-foot addition and constructing a two-story, 32-foot high, 29,200 square-foot, masonry building dug into the mountainside. Adjacent to this new superstructure are plans for a 17,500 square foot “recreation area” and next to that, parking for more than 200 cars.
The ICR illegally cleared land atop the mountain several years ago and turned a wide bald swatch into overflow parking for its Friday and holiday services.
The ICR has been trying to build the addition and add 200 legal parking spaces for years. To begin, the applicant is up against a local law passed in 2016 that says certain permitted “non-residential uses in residential zones, including houses of worship, must be located on a state or county road. Mountainview Avenue, a winding, often treacherous road that spans from Route 59 to Christian Herald Road, is a town road.
Breaking with precedent on Mountainview Avenue would have implications town-wide for residents and other religious organizations seeking relief from the town’s zoning code. For the past decade, “non-residential uses” in Clarkstown have been strictly limited to state and county roads. Mountainview Avenue is a “secondary town road,” on Clarkstown’s official map.
Before the Planning Board can greenlight the project, the applicant will need to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals because the existing use is already “non-conforming,” and an expansion of that non-conforming use requires both zoning and planning approval.
Although the applicant says: “the use is permitted or allowed by a special or conditional use permit,” that representation runs counter to the provisions in the town’s zoning code, which requires a use variance because a non-residential use in not permitted on this piece of property.
If the Zoning Board of Appeals were to grant a variance, it would effectively open residential districts to houses of worship town-wide.
The project also plans “land disturbance” of more than six acres, making the proposal a Type I action under SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act); this will force the Planning Board to take a harder look at the environmental impacts of the mountaintop project in the town’s R-160 conservation zone.
Residents and members of hiking clubs have expressed concern about the proposed project’s impact on the viewshed. The Planning Board addressed that concern by asking the ICR to conduct “balloon testing” for viewshed disturbance.
ICR’s engineers were supposed to erect four red balloons on the corners of the building’s proposed footprint last April to determine the impact of the 32-foot structure situated at the highest point on Mountainview Ave. However, the ICR’s test never included balloons.
One resident wrote to Town Planner Joe Simoes: “This is the view from the back of my house, starting with a shot near the edge of my property to up close near the ICR parking lot. There are yellow ribbons attached to the string, but on a day like today it’s completely understandable that one will not see anything from further away. Any sort of big red balloon attached to each of the cranes might yield a better idea of the view shed. People who live within the 500’ radius may not see anything depending on their home position.”
The resident also pointed out that “this was not the intended area for the ICR buildings to be situated so why did they put the cranes in the parking lot?!? Have they changed their proposed construction sites?”
The letter writer requested that the ICR conduct the test properly.
“Can you please insist that ICR attach red balloons to the cranes and move the cranes to the correct position of the buildings? This is not a proper crane test.”
The Planning Board told residents who wrote and called they should raise the issue at the next hearing, making it “all the more important,” residents says, for the meeting to be held on a day that is not compromised by the Jewish High Holy days.
Residents for years have been speaking out against the enormous development proposed by the ICR that will disturb a swath of sensitive ecology at the highest elevation along Mountainview Avenue. Those addressing environmental and traffic safety concerns at Planning Board meetings and through correspondences to the town, have raised concern over increased traffic on the dangerous serpentine two-lane road, additional flooding on a road already challenged with constant runoff, sheeting rain, ice, noise and light pollution, loss of habitat, obstruction to the viewshed, and interference with the Long Path, an historic trail that runs from the GW Bridge to the Adirondacks.
With numerous environmental concerns in question, including negative impact to wildlife and biodiversity, the presence of the bald eagle, disruption to an historic walking trail and a threat to core forest at a time when climate change is a pressing concern, residents say the project clearly calls for deep environmental study – or more technically a “positive SEQRA declaration.”
Whether the Clarkstown Planning Board agrees to truly have this site studied objectively by external experts, and not just rely on the applicant’s findings, as is often the case, remains to be seen.
Nothing is more troubling, however, than the potential traffic and safety impacts. Mountainview Avenue is a winding, precipitous, and a dangerously traversed road that sits between Christian Herald Road and Route 59, and the entrance to southbound entrance to I-87. Because of the nature of the road, it was recently closed to trucks over three tons (except for local deliveries).
On its application, the ICR acknowledges its project will result in “a substantial increase in traffic — mornings, evenings and weekends.”
Clarkstown’s traffic engineers have said the traffic and dangers along Mountainview Avenue cannot be mitigated.
