The Santa Clara County board of supervisors unanimously upheld the site permit for the Cordoba Center mosque and cemetery in San Martin Tuesday, and denied three appeals to the project that has generated sometimes heated controversy in South County in recent months.
Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who represents the district where the Cordoba Center is proposed, said he was “disappointed” that one of those appealing the project was the applicant and developer, the South Valley Islamic Community.
“In this case, the applicant got what they asked for, and then they’re appealing it,” Wasserman said. “That didn’t seem right to me.”
The Cordoba Center is proposed on a 15-acre site on Monterey Road, just north of the intersection of California Avenue.
The board’s decision followed more than two hours of public testimony and board discussion. About 30 members of the public spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, expressing a mix of strong views in favor of and opposed to the Cordoba Center.
More than 100 people attended the supervisors’ public hearing on the project.
The county planning commission unanimously approved the SVIC’s application for a use permit Aug. 2, following a series of community and advisory meetings on the project that drew hundreds of area residents.
The project includes a 5,000-square-foot prayer hall, 2,800-square-foot multi-purpose hall, a two-acre cemetery, and open space.
In its appeal, the SVIC did not seek a reversal of the planning commission’s approval, but modifications to some of the restrictions placed on the project.
Specifically, these include allowing daily attendance of up to 150 people at the site, allowing overnight accommodations for security staff or overnight events, and increasing the size of the multi-purpose hall to 5,000 square feet.
The planning commission restricted the site to maximum daily attendance of 80, with only four events per year accommodating up to 150 people.
SVIC spokeswoman Melindah Bush said at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting that the restrictions placed on the project by the planning commission – and which were subsequently approved by the supervisors – place undue restrictions on SVIC members’ constitutional right to practice their religion.
Limiting the daily attendance, for example, would make it more difficult for the Cordoba Center to host weddings and funerals, and to celebrate some holidays, Bush said.
“We are not asking you to change laws – just to apply the existing law fairly on us as you would on a church,” Bush said.
The modifications proposed in the SVIC’s appeal, she added, represent the project’s original plans which were scaled back after the initial application for the Cordoba Center was submitted last year.
Two more appeals to the Cordoba Center which were also heard at Tuesday’s meeting asked the supervisors to reject the use permit outright.
The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance appealed the project based on what its representatives said were violations of public noticing and county land use guidelines.
Plus, the proposed project does not adhere to county general plan policies that require “local serving” uses on non-commercial, non-residential projects, SMNA member Sylvia Hamilton said at the meeting.
Another appeal was filed by a group known as the People’s Coalition for Government Accountability. Represented by their attorney Dan De Vries at Tuesday’s meeting, the PCGA also claimed the Cordoba Center proposal violates a number of county land use, zoning and general plan policies.
Those complaints of disregard for existing policies were found to be without merit by the supervisors.
“After reading the reports including groundwater studies, conferring with our legal staff and hearing from the public, it is clear to me that the appropriate and legal course of action is for the board to deny all of the appeals and to uphold the Planning Commission’s decision,” Wasserman said.
SVIC members said after the meeting that they are pleased the site for the mosque and cemetery were approved, but they will continue to seek their desired modifications to the project through administrative processes.
“There’s still room to talk with county staff,” Bush said.
