New York panel votes down landmark status for ground zero mosque site
New York City’s Landmark Preservation Committee has voted against granting landmark designation to a building slated for demolition, paving the way for a controversial Islamic center and mosque to be built near the site of the former World Trade Center.
The building and an adjoining building are owned by real estate developer Soho Properties, which intends to build an Islamic center two blocks north of Ground Zero.
While the public vote had been the focus of much debate about the planned Islamic center and mosque, the commission could not have prevented the developers from building such a community center. By designating the building a landmark, however, the commission could have prevented Soho Properties from demolishing the structure or significantly altering its exterior.
Instead the nine-person commission voted unanimously against landmark status.
Cordoba opposed landmark status for the five-story building because it would like to build a taller, modern building. “It’s not minarets,” said Oz Sultan, spokesperson for the Cordoba Initiative, the organization behind the planned center that says it is “committed to promoting positive interaction between the Muslim world and the West.”
Sultan described a mock-up of the proposed center as consistent with the latest architecture found in New York City.
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other city leaders support the Islamic center.
Opponents, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, have argued against a mosque being so close to the scene of the nation’s worst terrorist attack.
“Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing,” tweeted Palin last month on her Twitter account.
The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that battles anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, is asking for the Islamic center and mosque to be built further away from Ground Zero in consideration of families who lost loved ones during the September 11, 2001, attacks. “Building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right,” said the organization in a statement.
Most recently a Burlington Coat Factory retailer, 45-47 Park Place was completed in 1858