Setback In Plans For DuPage County Mosque
WHEATON, Ill. (WBBM/CBS) -- A group that is planning to build a mosque in DuPage County has suffered a setback.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Bob Conway reports, the DuPage County Zoning Board of Appeals has recommended against the request from the Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America , or MECCA, for the project, which is planned for 91st Street near Illinois Route 83 in unincorporated Willowbrook.
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The development would include mosque, a school and a recreation center.
Board members who voted against the project cited concerns dealing with an oversaturation of religious institutions in the area, traffic congestion, and flooding issues.
In planning the mosque and community center, MECCA president Abdulgany Hamadeh said in September that it would help the cause of "encouraging mainstream Muslim organizations that promote tolerance (so) can we fight and defeat extremism," the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.
The group currently uses a storefront in a shopping center located on Plainfield Road east of Route 83.
The mosque proposal is now scheduled to go to the DuPage County Development Committee for review on Feb. 1, but the final decision on whether the mosque will be built must be made by the DuPaeg County Board.
