Records: Law firm billed Oyster Bay $387G so far to defend federal mosque lawsuit
The parking lot outside the Masjid Al-Baqi mosque in Bethpage this summer. Oyster Bay Town parking guidelines have been a big part of the controversy surrounding a planned expansion by the mosque. Credit: Newsday / Drew Singh
The Town of Oyster Bay has racked up $387,000 in outside legal fees defending a federal lawsuit over denying a mosque's expansion plan in Bethpage, records obtained by Newsday show.
Muslims on Long Island, the owners of the Masjid Al-Baqi mosque on Central Avenue, sued Oyster Bay in January, alleging the town violated federal religious land use laws by rejecting its bid to roughly triple its footprint.
The law firm — Rosenberg Calica Birney Liebman & Ross LLP — has billed Oyster Bay approximately $387,000 from late January through August, according to town billing records obtained through the state's Freedom of Information Law. The records show that through August, the town paid more than $222,000 to the firm.
Oyster Bay hired the firm for its experience handling land-use cases, according to town board documents. That contract set hourly rates at $390 for partners and $290 for associates, town documents show.
The trial is scheduled to start Monday. The town's legal expenses are expected to grow with the retention of a second outside law firm to help handle the caseload. The town board recently approved a contract with Moritt Hock & Hamroff LLP, of Garden City, with an hourly rate of $1,200, documents show.
Town Attorney Frank Scalera requested hiring a second firm "based upon the extensive nature of the current trial preparation and anticipated trial and potential post-trial activities," his office wrote in a Sept. 29 memo.
Oyster Bay recently sought to postpone the Oct. 27 trial date, citing, in part, onerous requirements for its legal team. U.S. District Court Judge Sanket J. Bulsara denied the town’s request on Wednesday during a pretrial hearing.
Muhammad Faridi, of the Linklaters LLP law firm that represents MOLI, said in an emailed statement that the firm is “ready for trial and pleased the Court rejected further delay.”
“This case should have been resolved long ago — by now, the Town has spent years and a significant amount of taxpayer dollars defending discrimination it could have ended through a fair settlement,” Faridi said. “When the trial concludes, the Town will likely face a far greater financial and moral cost for what it has done.”
Brian Nevin, an Oyster Bay spokesman, said in an email that while "the attorneys for the mosque are churning legal fees in an effort to exhaust the town, we demand that any expansion meet current zoning laws that were designed to allow for reasonable development while not putting the safety of residents in jeopardy."
In late August Oyster Bay agreed to, but later backed out of, a proposed settlement that required the town to pay $3.95 million to the mosque in legal fees and other expenses, and approve the expansion.
MOLI's case centers largely on the town's decision in 2022 to change parking requirements for buildings where there is a religious use. The changes, which were made while the mosque plan was under review, made it more onerous for the mosque to proceed with its plan, MOLI's lawyers have argued.
That law required one parking space for every three people at houses of worship. Owners of the mosque alleged in court documents that the change had caused the number of parking spots in the expansion plan to spike significantly.
Earlier this month, the town changed its parking code to bring the formula calculating parking space requirements for secular buildings in line with the one used at religious institutions.
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