And by reconsider they mean approve a new mosque…or face another DOJ
Lomita will reconsider a mosque’s rejected
redevelopment plans as part of a settlement agreement with the Islamic
center and the federal government.
The Department of Justice launched a civil
rights probe in 2011 into whether Lomita officials violated federal law
in rejecting the plans the previous year by the Islamic Center of the
South Bay. Five months after the investigation began, the mosque filed a
lawsuit alleging its plans were rejected because of religious
discrimination.
The Justice Department has since concluded
there was no evidence city officials were guilty of religious
discrimination, City Attorney Christi Hogin said.
However, federal officials do believe the
city’s denial created “a substantial burden on the exercise of
religion,” a violation of federal law. A substantial burden exists when a
denial results in over-crowding or other effects that hamper the
conduct of religious practices.
Mosque officials have said previously their lack of prayer space violates Islamic principles.
So the Justice Department signaled its intention to file a lawsuit on that basis against Lomita, which denies the allegations.
The settlement puts on hold both lawsuits
while the city reconsiders the redevelopment plan, which was originally
rejected because of parking and traffic circulation concerns, Hogin
said.
The city was actually in discussions with
the mosque to tweak the project when it was “blindsided” by the lawsuit,
she said. And since then the mosque has purchased another piece of
property on Appian Way that is likely to allay most of the traffic
concerns anyway, Hogin said.
Although the city believes it would
prevail in the lawsuits, spending the money on legal fees would not
solve anything since the mosque would still own the property and the
issue would remain unresolved.
“This is not a dispute that can be
meaningfully resolved in a court, which is why I think the settlement is
the best outcome for everybody,” Hogin said. “We don’t need to spend
$250,000 (on legal fees) to reach the point where we are at right now.”
Mosque representatives also sounded hopeful the settlement will lead to a resolution of the long-standing controversy.
“We are encouraged by this agreement and
hopeful that the Islamic Center will soon have a beautiful new mosque
for its congregants,” said Pasadena attorney Anne Richardson.
Essentially, the process will begin anew, Hogin said.
“There will be a complete do-over, but for
a different project, and everyone will have a chance to come down and
tell us what is right and what is wrong with the project,” she said.
The city has also revamped its Municipal
Code that eliminated “special regulations imposed only on religious
facilities” to comply with a 2011 court ruling that said places of
worship must be treated the same as auditoriums, clubs and other places
people gather.
The Department of Justice reserves the
right to reinstate the case if the development application is not
resolved by the end of the year.
As we told you previously, the DOJ claims to have just stumbled upon this mosque that was rejected, DOJ investigating L.A. suburb for rejecting mosque expansion and Holder’s DOJ investigating city officials after mosque denial:…when Justice Department officials read a May 2010 Los Angeles Times blog post which reported that members of the Mosque felt discriminated against, they decided to launch their investigation…As noted above the city did absolutely NOTHING wrong. Yet they are being forced to reconsider the mosque plans and the future is not hard to predict here.
Maybe Geert Wilders is onto something with his new website.
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