DuPage OK's mosque, ending months of debate

Plans to construct a mosque near Willowbrook were approved Tuesday by the DuPage County Board after months of debate. Board members voted 13-5 to support a conditional-use permit for Muslim Educational and Cultural Center of America, which plans to build on nearly five wooded acres along 91st Street near Route 83. The roughly 47,000-square-foot structure will include a weekend school and a gymnasium.

Dr. Abdulgany Hamadeh, MECCA president, said the group is very pleased with the outcome.

“DuPage County did the right thing and gave us the vote that we needed since we complied with all the regulations,” Hamadeh said. “Thanks to God it did work in our favor.”

Tuesday's decision came a month after MECCA representatives announced that they were reducing the structure's size by 10,000 square feet and eliminating a multipurpose room from the proposal amid concerns about traffic and the size of the building.

Despite MECCA downsizing the project, nearby homeowners remained strongly opposed because they're worried about the possible negative impacts on their neighborhood, including traffic.

Neighbor Craig Rohner said the structure is simply “too much” for the property. “It's too bad that they are going to cut themselves short because there won't be any place to expand,” he said.

Still, officials who supported the mosque said the scaled-down plans and a list of conditions imposed on the property represented the best attempt at finding “a middle ground.”

MECCA, for example, won't be able to have more than 597 people on the property. There also will be restrictions on when non-worship activities could take place.

“What we have coming out of our board here today is a message that DuPage County does not look at every zoning petition and just says yes or no,” said county board member Tony Michelassi, development committee chairman. “We try to appease and accommodate everybody's concerns.”

Construction is expected to start soon and take about two years to complete. In the meantime, one issue that's unresolved is whether MECCA will continue to seek a height variance to allow for a dome and minaret on the mosque. Last month, the county board voted 15-2 to deny the group's request to exceed the county's height restriction of 36 feet.

Mark Daniel, MECCA's attorney, said the group hasn't yet decided its next move. “That's under discussion,” he said. “We'll have to see what happens.”