The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The first Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing on a mosque planned for a South Middlebush Road parcel ended on a confusing note, with members of the public and a Board member noting that the project’s application did not match a description of the project on the applicant’s web page.
A representative of the applicant, The Tawheed Dawah Center Masjid, didn’t help with the confusion when he said he didn’t know why the conflicting information was on the web site.
The plan is to build the mosque on property adjacent to Snyders’ Farm that was approved for a 21,000-square-foot Hindu temple in October 2021.
The mosque would be smaller, about 19,000 square feet, and the building design would be changed from the temple’s to reflect Islamic requirements.
The applicant is asking for a waiver from the original approval’s requirement that religious services be held 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 mosque requires prayer services to be held five times a day, seven days a week.
Mosque officials certified in a statement included in the application packet that the mosque would not be used for weddings or funerals, that there would be no outside activities, and that if a gathering of more than 70 or 80 people was planned, they would seek a Township permit.
Those stipulations were reviewed during the November 20 Zoning Board hearing by Anjum Razi, a co-founder of the mosque. Razi spent the bulk of the hearing talking about the organization and why the South MIddlebush Road location was picked.
The organization bought the property about two years ago, according to application documents.
But as pointed out by several area residents and Board vice-chairman Robert Shepherd, the Tahweed Dawah Center’s web site tells a different story than that in the application, and as enumerated by Razi.
According to the web site, “Looking ahead, we are excited about our ambitious plans for the Somerset location:
“20,000 sqft Building: Our visionary project envisions a dedicated space for Masjid, Madrassah, and other religious programs.
“127-Vehicle Parking Lot: Convenience and accessibility for all attendees and visitors.”
A Madrassah is an Islamic school.
The site also advertises a summer school at the South Middlebush location, run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
There are also advertisements for various forms of Islamic studies at the South Middlebush Road address.
“I have just looked at the Tawheed Dawah Center (web site), and I find the information on there to be incredibly different than what is being proposed here at this meeting,” Shepherd said. “And my question is, is the information on that website relevant to our analysis and understanding of what they’re offering here? It would seem, from a credibility standpoint, that it is.”
“And if it is, I think that the witness tonight, he says he’s never seen this before,” he said. “He should go home and read it and be available for the next time that we appear here.”
Razi repeated that he did not know why that information was on the web site.
“So then I have a question,” Board member Kunal Lakhia said. “Is that website yours?”
Lakhia turned his laptop around so Razi could see it.
“Yes,” Razi answered.
“There you go, I think that answers the question,” Lakhia said.
Also making an appearance was Martina Bailie, an attorney once again representing the Snyder family in their opposition to the project.
“My clients really have a very vested interest in what happens tonight and essentially in seeing those conditions preserved and respected to the extent possible,” she said. “To the extent that this application presents a new use, a new religion, a different religion, and we think quite significantly intensifies the use on this property, we would be looking for additional conditions that we think need to be put in place both to preserve some of the existing conditions, but also to reflect the changed circumstances.”
She said the concerns her clients have relate to traffic and neighboring uses, including a 29,000-square-foot temple that was approved for across South Middlebush Road from this property.
The next hearing on the application was set for February 19, 2026.
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