Proposed Paramus Road Mosque Talks Resume

Talks concerning the Muslim Cultural Center’s plans to bring a mosque to Paramus are still ongoing.

The Paramus Board of Adjustment heard more testimony Thursday night picking up where it left up eight months ago with parking remaining the top concern among board members and neighboring property owners.

The Muslim Cultural Center of Bergen County is seeking to occupy the Paramus Road location, which was previously given approval by the Board to build an office building, as a mosque and cultural center. Hearings began last year and after two postponements this winter and spring resumed Thursday.

Judd Rocciola, the traffic engineer who did a parking study for the project, testified that the proposed 61 spaces will sufficiently satisfy the needs of the congregation at its current size and if it were to double in size. However Zoning Board Chairman Stephen Sullivan says there is no guarantee that the congregation will not triple or quadruple in size.

“I don’t want to burden the residents in the area with the overflow parking on the street,” said the Chairman.

The proposed three-story building would consist of a  ground floor vestibule area with elevator and staircase access. The second floor would house a worship area for women and the third floor is intended as the worship area for the men. Plans for the ground floor were previously amended to use 850 square feet for five parking spaces, a revision which was done last fall in order to add more parking.

Much of the discussion was spent on the parking analysis as there was a difference in opinion as to how the number of required spaces should be determined.

The applicant had based the parking analysis on the square footage of the worship area which is 3,066 feet, not counting the ground floor area which according to attorney James Delia would not be used for congregating. The worship areas would not contain fixed seating as congregants would use prayer mats therefore the calculations the applicant used was one parking space per 45 square feet of the worship area. 

Rocciola explained he counted the number of vehicles at two area locations the congregation currently rents for worship – the Paramus VFW where Ramadan service is held and the American Legion in Elmwood Park where he studied the number of cars during a regular Friday afternoon service. 

He said that during peak service, Ramadan at the VFW, he counted 52 cars which comes in below the number of parking spaces proposed at the site.

Rocky Hernandez, a resident of McKay Avenue, questioned where cars would go if the congregation were to grow and exceed the amount of spaces at the site adding that is no parking or even room to easily turn a vehicle around on the side-street he lives on.

The hearing will continue at the Sept. 12 meeting.