An appeal hearing tied to the ongoing battle between Los Gatos residents and a town mosque was delayed by the Town Council on Tuesday to allow more time to get answers to questions relating to occupancy limits at the house of worship.
The West Valley Muslim Association, or WVMA, operates the mosque at 16769 Farley Road, which is located in a residential neighborhood. Residents living near the mosque have complained about late-night activities and traffic disrupting their quality of life and the town’s quiet hours, especially during the month of Ramadan.
At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, the appeal hearing was scheduled to address a Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, granted to WVMA to allow for extended hours of operation.
The permit was approved by the town’s Planning Commission in May to expand operating hours year-round as well as allow later hours for Ramadan, but it came with numerous conditions imposed to try to mitigate neighborhood concerns.
Those conditions included capping the mosque’s maximum occupancy based on the number of parking spaces and renovating the parking lot, conditions that WVMA is challenging in an appeal.
WVMA argues that the conditions place a significant burden on its practice of worship and that the decision was made without enough evidence.
“The commission imposed conditions that substantially burden WVMA’s religious exercise,” WVMA wrote in its appeal. “The commission imposed conditions with little or no evidentiary support or acted on unverified and subjective neighbor complaints rather than objective evidence entered into the public record.”
The Farley Road Neighborhood Coalition, a group of residents opposing the permit to expand the mosque’s operating hours, appealed the commission’s decision as well. It also argued that the commission granted the CUP without substantial and objective evidence, contending that the data used in making the decision was “limited” and “flawed.”
“This decision constitutes an error in the application of zoning and land use standards and fails to adequately protect the surrounding residential neighborhood from increased operational impacts,” the appeal reads.
At Tuesday’s meeting, WVMA requested that the appeal hearing be pushed back. Razi Mohiuddin, WVMA’s founder, said he had recently received new information regarding changes in occupancy limits from the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
“We need additional time to get to the bottom of this,” he said at the meeting.
Mohiuddin said the department previously allowed a maximum occupancy of 1,214 people for the mosque’s three auditoriums. However, last month the department notified the town that the number was inaccurate and that the new occupancy limit is only 566 attendees.
“We received an updated occupancy number that we need to understand what the reason was for that,” he said. “We have requested public records from the fire department, from the town, as well as we are looking to understand from an architectural perspective what are the requirements that are needed in order to make sure we have an understanding of what our occupancy is.”
James Ratcliff of the Farley Road Neighborhood Coalition agreed that more time is needed to get public records relating to the occupancy limits. Like Mohiuddin, Ratcliff was upset that the fire department’s updated occupancy limits were only recently provided, since the coalition has also been trying to get specific numbers on occupancy requirements.
“We’re in support of doing a continuance because this data is significantly different,” Ratcliff said to the council. “It’s super frustrating, and frankly, it’s unbelievable how long this has taken.”
The Town Council also agreed to continue the hearing to a later date, but some councilmembers wanted to set a specific date to hold the hearing to avoid further delays.
“I think we just need to get on with it,” said Councilmember Rob Rennie. “I think this whole thing has been overly complicated by all the parties involved, and sorry, staff is contributing to the over-complication of this.”
Others said it is unknown exactly how much time would be needed to gather documents requested by the appellants and put together staff reports for the hearing.
Mayor Rob Moore said setting a date for the hearing could run the risk of further delays if not all the information needed to make a decision is available.
“I think it would not be helpful to pick a date now … and then find out we don’t have all the information or we haven’t had the analysis, and then we’re stuck with this same exact situation,” he said.
In the end, the council voted unanimously to continue the hearing to a future meeting without setting a specific date.
