The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The Zoning Board of Adjustment is set to hear on November 20 an application for a 19,000-square-foot mosque targeted for a South Middlebush Road parcel that had previously been approved for a Hindu temple.
The new owners of the approximately 16-acre site adjacent to Snyder’s Farm, Tawheed Dawah Center, are looking for approval of a new building design and a more intensive use than was granted for the Hindu temple.
The Dada Bhagwan Vignan Institute was restricted to worship services on Saturdays and Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and two Fridays a year from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The Tawheed Dawah Center is looking for approval to hold religious services five times a day, seven days a week: before 6 a.m., at 1 p.m., at 5 p.m., at 7 p..m., and at 9 p.m.
The building design needs to be changed because its use is changing from a Hindu temple to an Islamic mosque, and there are certain religious architectural elements that must be included, according to the application.
Daily prayer sessions will be no longer than 30 minutes, according to the application, and will be attended by 50 to 60 people. That number will increase on weekends and during the month of Ramadan, according to the application.
The mosque will not be rented out or used by other organizations, according to the application, and there will be no outdoor activities that would involve loud music, loud noise, or a congregation of people larger than 150.
The mosque will apply for permits from the Township for high holy days or weddings or funerals that are expected to draw more than “a larger than normal crowd,” according to the application.
At no time will the number of people using the property exceed 458, according to the application.
The Hindu temple encountered stiff opposition from neighbors and other township residents. Hearings for the application took about a year before it was approved.
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