City Councilor Ali Sekou is suing his City over a new development next to the Mosque he runs. I shared some thoughts on this a few days ago and wondered if the lawsuit to block new housing was about parking spaces. It’s been a few days, and I think it is about parking.
As a reminder, “the IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord sits on a piece of property adjacent to the First Congregational Church at 177 N. Main St, in whose lot (some) Mosque attendees are alleged to have parked.” Parking sucks on Main Street, and the Mosque is but one of its many victims, which is where our story takes a new turn (or should I say an old one).
From that Concord resident and reader:
The Concord ZBA approved the Mosque at its August 2, 2017, meeting. The Mosque project requested six zoning variances beginning June 7, 2017. The first variance request states “to permit 16 parking spaces where 251 spaces are required.”
By the time the August 2 meeting came the ZBA decided that only 47 spaces were required and the 16 onsite parking spots were good enough if they could get an easement from the First Congregational Church next door for 31 more parking spots.
The Concord Monitor reported on the August 2nd meeting, stating the next step would be to get Site Plan approval from the Planning Board.
Maybe I’m partial to promoting my guesses, but how is this not about parking?
I’m not clear on any official parking variance – maybe someone can find out if the Concord Planning Board even approached this – but when the church property was sold, that changed the game. The new property owners’ plan to build apartments was also approved with a parking variance (if I recall), so is it inappropriate for the Mosque to complain about parking or traffic or the character of the area when it – assuming my source is correct – went from needing 251 spaces to 47 spaces, 65.95% of which were not even on the Mosque’s property.
The IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord has sued, so a lawyer in a robe will get a shot at telling us what it all means when I think we already know. Zoning and Planning rules exist to give zoning and planning board members something to do. That something is approving development, and to hell with the parking and traffic; the Mosque is wasting its money on the lawsuit.
The City isn’t going to do anything about a parking problem the Mosque accepted on a contingency the City was never going to pursue, and even if it did, it was temporary at best. Short of the IQRA Islamic Society of Greater Concord buying that land, it was always temporary, and they didn’t buy it.
If the Mosque thinks it can win because the City owes it parking, they are going to lose.
