An Islamic center-owned piece of real estate is causing a controversy in Long Island—and the center doesn't even want to build anything on it! The Hillside Islamic Center wants to expand its currently 19-space parking lot, so it asked the North Hempstead zoning board "for a variance to convert residential property into a parking lot that would create 18 spaces." Cue non-New York candidates to seize this issue and call it a "victory parking lot"!
The center points out that its worshipers are parking in front of residents' homes because the current lot is so crowded. Also not helping: The residents who put cones in front of their homes to prevent worshipers from parking there. But one resident, Ed Weiss, who lives next to the proposed lot told WCBS 880, "[Where] does it stop?” You know, does somebody all of a sudden decide that they want to buy two houses in the middle of Hillside Boulevard and, at that point, decide to put up a warehouse, and now you have trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood? That’s our concern.” He's also worried about his home's value depreciating.
And residents who oppose the expanded parking lot say it's not about religion, "It’s fine that they worship, we don’t care about that. But if they increase the size of the parking lot more people are going to come and there’s still going to be parking on our streets.”
