Dear Editor:
Just back from watching the latest almost comic and the somewhat pathetic attempt by the Islamic Community Cultural Center’s attorney and “expert witnesses” to convince the Zoning Board to approve the Center’s request for zoning exceptions. Those exceptions, if granted, would enable the Center to construct 28 rental apartments in the middle of a residential neighborhood and also permit those apartment renters to park and block the driveways and mailboxes gracing the surrounding neighborhood streets.
Given the reality that tonight’s Zoning Board meeting was just another in a series of meetings held over the last year and a half, it is worth noting that once again absolutely no new additional information was provided to the Zoning Board and the hundreds of residents in attendance.
Instead, the Center’s attorney, once again, trotted out the Project Architect who repeated his performance at the last meeting, three months ago, by proving to be unable to answer the most basic questions about his design for the proposed structure, His professed ignorance coupled with the mind numbing testimony from the Center’s current Operations Manager whose favorite response was “I don’t know the answer
to that question so you’ll have to ask my Dad” suggests that hype and hope are the driving components of the Center’s efforts to secure the Zoning Board’s approval.
Rather than continuing to politely acquiesce to the Center’s ongoing presentation strategy, perhaps the Zoning Board can become a bit more active and insist that facts, rather than hype and hope, must be the criteria by which their decision will be made.
Bob Crawford
