Recommendation: No landmark for 9/11 mosque

NEW YORK (AP) — A community board is recommending no landmark designation for a building that would be used for a mosque near the former World Trade Center site.

Community Board 1 voted 24-11 Tuesday to recommend that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission deny historic designation to the building. The designation would complicate the mosque’s construction.

Opponents of the mosque favored the designation.

The mosque is a project of the nonprofit Cordoba Initiative, which says it promotes cross-cultural understanding between Islam and the West. Cordoba purchased the property for $4 million. It plans to build a $100 million Islamic center.

The board voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project even as it drew emotional opposition from some local residents and relatives of 9/11 victims.