Mosque Expansion approved!

[bluedogok]

The comments sections on the DOK are almost exclusively the bastions of the rabid and delusional. It's a scary place.

This is true.....

Before I moved to Austin I lived a block or so away from the Islamic center in the Mayfair area, I never saw an issue with parking at that one.

We drive by the one here in Aurora (in unincorporated Arapahoe County between Aurora and Denver) and during "high holidays" it can get nuts around there during that time and they have a fairly large parking lot. There are also a lot of apartments in the area and you can see many of the Muslim immigrants walking to/from the Islamic center so pedestrian traffic can get heavy during those times. There are several international groceries and other businesses catering to the immigrant population in the area where people park and walk to the center.

I do know that the neighborhood parking was always an issue for Belle Isle Community Church (started in the 50's as Westridge Hills Church of God) as they grew rapidly eventually pushing them to move to Lake Hefner Parkway and changing to Crossings Community Church. The church that my wife went to in Austin was the same thing, a neighborhood church started in the 50's but has had some moderate growth but enough to create parking issues with the adjacent neighborhood. They even bought some adjacent houses fronting the main road with the church property but the neighborhood has blocked some of the proposed changes.

Neighborhood worship centers were a popular thing in the 50's-70's but they are just a problem now in older, established neighborhoods with limited expansion capabilities. I understand the reason why the mosque was placed in the location it was to be close to the student population but locating in an area like that brings its own issues not related to the faith of facility.

[jerrywall]

And we're talking about a significant growth. 8000SF added to a 600SF existing building. It's not like it's a minor addition.