I’m writing to seek your assitance in actively helping the Muslim Society find a new site for a place of worship.
As expressed by the Mayor at Monday’s meeting, there is absolutely no question as to the society’s right to build a new place of worship, and after listening to their presentation there is little doubt that this growing and vibrant community needs and deserves a larger facility.
Those of us who spoke out against this particular application did so strictly on the basis of sound planning principles. The specific concerns of my neighbours and I relate to develpment in this area in general. The standards that we expect to see applied to the surrounding industrial lands apply to all sites.
My reasons for writing to you are strictly personal. My empathy lies with the society and I have grave concerns that they may incur a huge expense, endure a protracted planning process, delay their end goal of a new facility, and may not appreciate the huge planning hurdles they would have to overcome with this site.
I commend Council for adding an amendment to the resolution to offer a parallel process to look at alternate sites. Although the response from the Society’s representative may not have seemed too enthusiastic, I’m urging the City to truly engage the Society and assist them in achieving their goal of finding a suitable site and bringing a new facility to fruition. I don’t think passive assistance is enough.
All the requests for further studies and information, some of which are requisite studies under the planning act, will entail a huge cost for the Society – probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time various planning consultants are hired to produce the requisite engineeing and environmental studies. All that information, especially engaging various consultants, is also going to take an extended period of time to produce. I’m not sure if the Society understands that they must bear this financial burden, the extent of that burden, and the elapsed time this may take. This does not meet the Society’s criteria for affordability and timeliness.
Without prejuding Council’s decision on this application, the application does have some major challenges. As noted in my presentation, I found at least fifty policies in the City’s Official Plan, that would be violated by approving this application. And even if approved by Council, an OMB appeal is a real possiblity. This would result in additional costs and further delay the Society’s end goal.
In summary, I’m imploring either you or City staff to actively engage the Society, actively pursue the parallel track envisaged by the amendment to the motion adopted on Monday evening, and help them find the right site, one that enables them to achieve their true objective of building an affordable mosque in a timely fashion. I’m very concerned that the Muslim Society may spend huge sums of money over a protracted period of time and have little or nothing to show for it.
Let us all help them find a home. PR