Applicants of a rejected application for a mosque to be built in the community of Bearspaw cannot confirm how they will move forward.
Rocky View County councillors struck down an application to change land-use to public service from residential in a 7-2 vote at the April 10 council session, in line with administration’s recommendation.
The application would pave the way for the build-out of a 22,000 square foot mosque and Islamic and community centre, including 431 parking stalls on a 12-acre parcel of land located at the southwest junction of Burma Road and Rocky Ridge Road.
“Everyone deserves a place of worship – but this was about land-use, plain and simple,” said Coun. Samanntha Wright, indicating that the public feedback revealed overwhelming community pushback.
“When you want to change land-use you need to engage the community and get their support,” she added, explaining that the applicant simply was unable to generate enough community support.
Major concerns contained in some 50 letters of opposition included traffic, noise and an absence of benefit to the greater Bearspaw community, with ample community spaces existing at facilities such as RockPointe Church, the Bearspaw Lifestyle Centre and the Bearspaw Lions Club.
The applicants, the Muslim Council of Calgary, maintain that faith discrimination is at play.
“We felt that discrimination is one of the main key drivers for the rejection here,” said Ghazanfar Zafar with the council, adding that some of the letters of opposition ranged from references that such a facility would not “fit” into the community to “complete bigotry.”
Zafar said that council represents around 80,000 or the roughly 100,000 Muslims living in Calgary. Their membership data indicates there has been considerable growth in the faith community throughout the region in recent years – including a current estimation of 313 Muslims living in Bearspaw.
He maintains that their application met all the technical merits and that the county made a “last-minute decision” to expand the public consult circulation radius, which he felt was unfair.
Zafar said traffic would be minimal throughout the week – averaging roughly 50 people a day, increasing to around 200 a day on the weekend and more at special faith celebrations such as Ramadan.
Bragg Creek Coun. Mark Kamachi voted in favour of the land-use redesignation on merits that every faith community deserves a place of worship and that the scope of the project could be changed significantly at later stages and that geotechnical studies and land assessments would still need to prove the site suitable.
“It was a land-use bylaw application … (the applicants) were willing to make all kinds of concessions,” said Kamachi, who was joined in his vote in favour of the mosque applications by Springbank Coun. Kim McKylor.
Zafar said they will “consult with stakeholders and move forward accordingly” with respect to whether or not they would be re-submitting an application.
