Crowd attends hearing on Wantagh mosque's appeal to move fence, store equipment

A Wantagh mosque’s effort to move a fence and store equipment and a trailer on its property faced community opposition as more than 200 people attended a zoning board hearing at Hempstead Town Hall Wednesday.

The Hempstead Town Board of Appeals reserved a decision on the application by the Islamic Center of Nassau following a hearing that lasted more than six hours. The mosque is on the corner of Jerusalem and Oakfield avenues in a building that used to be a church. The town landmarked the structure in 2019 over the objections of its former owner, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, as it was trying to sell the property.

Wednesday’s hearing was about moving a 6-foot-tall fence to the property line along Oakfield Avenue and allowing two HVAC units and a trailer to be stored on the site.

Mohammad Ali, a mosque trustee, told the board that the fence, which encloses the side and rear yards, was necessary for safety and privacy due to harassment and vandalism directed toward the property and mosque members since they purchased the building in 2021. 

“For the last four years, our congregation has lived with a level of hostility and fear that no religious community anywhere in this town should ever have to endure,” Ali said. He said “congregants, including elderly worshippers, women in hijabs and children [have been] subjected to slurs, intimidation and harassment.”

Enrique Reyes, 37, who works in health care staffing, lives adjacent to the property on Oakfield Avenue and told the board that moving the fence to the property line would exacerbate an existing safety issue.

“The proposed fence extension would push a solid 6-foot barrier right against my driveway, blocking all lines of sight,” Reyes said. “I've already had multiple close calls and minor accidents backing out.”

The property is zoned B Residence, which generally permits property owners to build 6-foot-high fences on their property lines in rear and side yards. In some circumstances, the zoning code requires a “clear sight triangle” to mitigate sightline issues like that raised by Reyes by restricting the height of a fence within a 20-foot radius of a property line abutting a road.

Although the building structure rather than the site was landmarked, the town landmarks committee weighed in on the fence, raising objections that it would block views of the building, according to an April 4, 2023, meeting transcript, and subsequently recommended the fence be set back 6 feet.   

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement Thursday it was “deeply concerned” that the congregation was being “forced through unnecessary delays and hostility simply to secure basic safety measures for its community.”

Town spokesman Brian Devine in a text message declined to comment as the issue was before the zoning board.

Ali’s presentation was continually interrupted by shouts and jeers that included an obscenity, a racial slur and an anti-Muslim comment. Chairman John Ragano told the audience that if they persisted in disrupting the hearing, they would be removed by public safety officers, though none were.

The congregation has submitted plans to build a multistory religious center behind the mosque, but those plans are still going through the approval process, Ali said. 

Most of the public comments were made by opponents, citing a range of concerns including traffic and the character of the neighborhood. Some members of the mosque sat to the sides, but only two spoke to the board. 

Ali said they were seeking variances that were no different from those granted to other area residences, businesses and houses of worship.

“We're simply asking to be treated equally, and after all we have lived through, we're asking to be treated fairly,” he said.