Santa Clara: Mosque’s 64-foot minaret OK’d by planning commission
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_15758404?source=rss&nclick_check=1Santa Clara planning commissioners Wednesday night approved the design of a nearly 64-foot minaret to be built alongside the Bay Area's largest mosque -- a decision that coincidentally occurred on the second night of Ramadan, Islam's holiest month of fasting.
The city's architectural review board had earlier approved the design, but a businessman with an office near the mosque appealed the decision to the commission. Commissioners unanimously rejected the appeal.
"We're very, very happy," said Mohammed Sarodi, chairman of the board of trustees for the Muslim Community Association on Scott Boulevard.
Sarodi said the minaret, along with a larger construction project to enhance and enlarge the mosque's
Santa Clara planning commissioners approved the design of a nearly 64-foot minaret to be built at the Bay Area's largest mosque. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
entrance, could be completed in about nine months. The commission's decision can be appealed to the City Council within the next week.
A minaret is a tower where, in some places, a religious leader calls the village to prayer. Mosque leaders say the minaret will not be used for that purpose in Silicon Valley; rather, it will be an architectural symbol of the Islamic faith.
Thomas Scott, president of Cambridge Management Company across the street, was the only person to file a formal request to deny the minaret's construction. His main complaint was that the minaret would be an "architectural curiosity" and set an "unusual precedent," as he stated in a letter to the city.
In a letter sent to the Mercury News this
week, Scott stated his problems with the mosque included the jammed parking lots at the popular house of worship and that construction on the mosque appeared to be "piecemeal."
His main opposition, he said, is that adding these types of structures in a light industrial area lowers the property value for the rest of the surrounding businesses.
A few others at Wednesday's meeting also opposed the minaret. One person railed against "Islamic domination" and "Muslims taking over America."
Scott did not endorse any of the extreme views taken against Islam. In an interview with the Mercury News afterward, Scott called the anti-Islam critics "nutcakes'' and credited the mosque for "doing good work.''
He also said he would have taken the same position against a church that had wanted to add tall structures in a similar fashion.
Meanwhile, this summer, a similar but larger debate has erupted in New York, where prominent groups are opposing a mosque being built just blocks away from ground zero, even though the mayor supports it.
Coincidentally, the Santa Clara planning meeting Wednesday fell on the second eve of Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims who fast for 30 days from sunrise to sundown. The
meeting ended about 8:30 p.m., about 20 minutes after sundown. Though hungry, Sarodi and friends ate dinner at a restaurant slightly later than they would have, but they said the wait was worth it.
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