Bethpage mosque expansion gets Oyster Bay's approval after federal lawsuit
The Masjid Al-Baqi mosque on Central Avenue in Bethpage. The Town of Oyster Bay approved a special permit that would allow the mosque to proceed with an expansion. Credit: Newsday/Drew Singh
The Town of Oyster Bay has approved plans to expand a mosque in Bethpage after settling a federal lawsuit that challenged an earlier denial.
Muslims on Long Island, which owns the Masjid Al-Baqi mosque on Central Avenue, sued the town in federal court last year after its building plans were rejected by the town. The mosque had sought to build a single, 16,000-square-foot building — tripling its footprint.
As part of a settlement reached in October, the town agreed to approve the expansion. In December, an arbitrator ruled the town was responsible for $5 million in legal fees incurred by the mosque's owner.
Angelo Delligatti, the town’s commissioner of planning and development, formally approved the site plans in a letter dated Feb. 4. The town required 103 parking spaces at the property, town spokesman Brian Nevin said.
Delligatti said in the letter that the mosque needs to file a building permit within the next year to proceed with the expansion.
“We are thrilled that our clients can finally build the house of worship they have long envisioned for their community,” Muhammad Faridi, an attorney for the mosque with the Linklaters LLP law firm, said in a statement.
New prayer space
The mosque operates out of two single-story buildings on the corner of Central and Stewart avenues. The proposal sought to raze the structures and build one 16,000-square-foot building.
Formerly restaurants, the buildings were repurposed for prayer and classroom spaces, Imran Makda, a member of the mosque's board of trustees, said in a phone interview Wednesday.
"It's not really designed the way a proper prayer space needs to be designed [or] a proper classroom needs to be designed," Makda said.
Curtains separate children in after-school programs from areas for worship and community events. The new mosque, he said, will allow for separate spaces.
"The whole idea behind it is to really build a more functional space," Makda said.
MOLI plans to hire a contractor to begin building the new facility this fall. Construction is expected to take about 18 months, he said. During that time, MOLI will use a nearby facility and might rent additional space, he said.
Lengthy legal battle
Oyster Bay and MOLI engaged in a lengthy and expensive legal battle for much of last year.
Leaders at the mosque said they needed more space for a larger prayer room and more wudu stalls for ritual washing.
In court papers, Oyster Bay argued the plan would worsen traffic and parking issues.
In 2022, Oyster Bay changed parking requirements for religious facilities while the plan was under review. The town changed the calculation, basing it off a facility's total occupancy rather than square footage or number of seats.
Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division backed the mosque’s central claim. In a federal court filing, Justice Department lawyers said the town's 2022 law caused religious facilities to be treated differently than non-religious ones.
In August, the town agreed to a settlement with MOLI but backed out days later. That agreement would have forced the town to approve the original 16,000-square-foot plan.
Then in October, on the eve of a federal trial, the town agreed to a scaled-back plan that limits the mosque to 9,950 square feet at ground level or above. The mosque said it would cap occupancy to 295 people — significantly less that the 464 cap proposed earlier, officials said.
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