After the deciding vote, Angel Alonso found himself surrounded by members of the Muslim congregation that he had quarreled with for nearly two years.
Dar-E-Abbas leaders had come to offer Alonso a chance to end their not-so-neighborly feud.
“Let’s start talking,” said Wasi Zaidi, one of the congregation’s founding members.
Then, Alonso and Zaidi shook hands. But even if Dar-E-Abbas is unable to maintain its tentative accord with Alonso and other opponents, the Shiite Muslim congregation scored a major victory Tuesday night when Lilburn officials approved its request to expand its worship center, which will consist of a mosque, cafeteria and other communal areas.
The neighborhood fight started two years ago when Lilburn’s planning commission recommended rejecting Dar-E-Abbas’ rezoning request, setting into motion a dispute that landed in federal court and prompted allegations of religious intolerance. The controversy divided the town, which vigorously debated whether the opposition was rooted in the concerns about traffic, noise and drainage problems or Islamophobia.
By comparison, Dar-E-Abbas received little of the support that enabled the construction of a colossal Hindu temple and expansion of a large Baptist church in recent years. But with Tuesday’s vote, residents and congregation members hope the conflict is finally behind them.
“We’re willing to go the extra mile,” said Hasan Mirza, who helped found Dar-E-Abbas in 1998. “We will continue to be good neighbors.”
The council’s vote enables the congregation — which was twice denied rezoning requests by the council — to build a 20,000-square-foot mosque at Lawrenceville Highway and Hood Road. Dar-E-Abbas members said they need more room to accommodate their growing membership, which increased from 20 families in 1998 to about 90 today.
As a result, Dar-E-Abbas plans to drop a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city and pursue the purchase of nearby properties.
But the controversy could loom large for several months, if not the next few years.
Johnny Crist — the council’s lone opposing vote Tuesday — plans to revisit the issue during his fall campaign to unseat incumbent Mayor Diana Preston.
Dar-E-Abbas leaders said it will be several years before they can afford to build the center, which will then require approval from city officials over development requirements.
Through it all, Lilburn residents hope they’re eventually able to escape a national spotlight they believe cast the Gwinnett County town of about 12,000 as a hotbed of religious intolerance.
“We’re going to try to move on,” Preston said. “Lilburn is going to create its own good news.”
One bit of good news: Dar-E-Abbas attorney Doug Dillard said, pending negotiations over attorney’s fees, he expects the lawsuit to be dropped sometime around the Labor Day weekend.
But the city could find itself in court again, with Alonso hinting after the vote that he and other residents had already consulted with attorneys.
“I feel like we were sold out,” said Alonso, who’s also planning to run for City Council this fall. “So we’re getting some people to look into this issue for us.”
In his fall mayoral campaign, look for Crist to use Tuesday’s vote as a referendum on the city’s future.
Crist, a council member since 2008 and founder and senior pastor of the Atlanta Vineyard Church, said he wanted to strengthen the city’s zoning ordinances and create some uniformity among new developments.
“I think I have a different vision than the others,” Crist said. “And I just want to clarify the kind of city I see for us.”
Preston, who recused herself from all mosque-related discussions and votes because she owns a home adjacent to property sought by Dar-E-Abbas, wasted little time highlighting the difference from her likely opponent.
In her first comments on the issue in more than a year, Preston said she wished she could have cast the deciding vote for the application when the council deadlocked, 2-2, in a December vote of the zoning request.
“The worst part is that we needed some leadership on that issue,” Preston said. “But I couldn’t speak out.”
Although most — if not all — mosque opponents have claimed their resistance had nothing to do with religion, the Justice Department is investigating the city’s rejection of the zoning applications. It’s part of a renewed commitment to enforce an 11-year-old federal law prohibiting local authorities from imposing “a substantial burden” on religious groups or treating them “on less than equal terms” than other groups in land-use decisions.
Justice Department officials and city leaders have not commented on the investigation other than to say there is one.
But as part of a similar case involving a Buddhist temple in Walnut, Calif., the Justice Department required that the city not impose different zoning and building requirements on other houses of worship; that city officials attend training on the requirements of the law; and that the city adopt new procedures that clarify its appeals process for religious groups. Walnut officials also will report periodically to the agency.
Lilburn could face the same sort of arrangement, local attorneys and city officials said.
“That saddens me greatly,” Lilburn council member Scott Batterton said. “They don’t care how the good citizens of Lilburn look in the national eye. They’re going to use us as a bad example.”
About a mile away from Dar-E-Abbas’ property, members of the largest Hindu temple of its kind in the nation said they’ve had a much more positive experiences with City Hall and local residents.
“They’ve been great neighbors to us,” said Ritesh “Rick” Desai, a member and volunteer at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. “They were very welcoming and easy to work with.”
However, overcoming the images of people lining up outside City Hall to fight against Dar-E-Abbas’ application could ultimately take even longer than the conflict itself. Zoning issue or not.
“I know the national media has made us look imbecilic and very redneckish,” Crist said. “It has not been a help to our city.”
What’s next?
● Attorneys for Dar-E-Abbas said the congregation soon will drop its federal discrimination lawsuit against Lilburn and pursue plans to buy the adjacent 6.5 acres of land to expand its worship center.
● The Justice Department is investigating whether Lilburn violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by rejecting Dar-E-Abbas’ zoning applications.
● Lilburn will hold a mayoral election in November, pitting incumbent Diana Preston against Johnny Crist, the lone council member to oppose the mosque application. There also will be two City Council elections.
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