Mosque Hearing Postponed to Next Month

The Bernards Township Planning Board has postponed a meeting for Monday night, with a continued hearing on an application by the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge to build a mosque at the edge of Liberty Corner village due to be moved to the next regular meeting on Dec. 3, said Township Planner David Schley.

Schley said that the agenda from the Monday meeting at this point is being moved to the Dec. 3 meeting, the board's regular meeting on the first Tuesday of the month.

He said the decision to cancel Monday's meeting was made on Friday because the board would not be able to get a sufficient quorum of members to hold the meeting.

In October, Adnan Khan, engineer for the applicant, addressed questions raised in letters from the township's experts about the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge's application to build a 4,250-square-foot mosque in place of a home on Church Street.

The topics addressed at that meeting included discussion of a revised drainage plan, with a "jellyfish" that would take in and filter stormwater runoff before discharging the water. Khan told neighbors the drainage plan would overall reduce stormwater runoff onto nearby properties.

He said the system would be designed to handle more than the volume produced by the theoretical "100-year-storm." However, under questioning by resident Lori Caratzola, Khan said a power outage would shut the pump on the system.

Planning Board Attorney Jonathan Drill said some issues already have been fully addressed by the applicant, in his opinion. For example, he said, the applicant's proposal to build 70 parking spaces initially and "bank" another 37 spots that would be built within 120 days if some or all of those spots were deemed necessary by the township — or by the mosque owners.

Drill also said a line of questioning about whether a sewer line leading from the property is legitimate is an issue that could only be answered in Superior Court — and that decisions about awarding sewer capacity fall within the jurisdiction of the Bernards Township Sewerage Authority.