Ian Paterson
North Shore Times
February 16, 2016
WILLOUGHBY Council is considering a development application to approve the operation of a mosque which has been holding services “without consent” for the past 13 years.
The Australian Islamic Cultural Centre purchased the two storey double-brick building at Hampden Rd in July 2001 for use as a house of prayer and community centre with the organisation wrongly assuming the site had previous approval.
Council first became aware the AICC were holding prayer services and using the site as a community centre in November 2003 without development consent.
Their records reveal only one complaint was made by a neighbouring resident in the last 24 months, which related to unauthorised works carried out on the site.
The new DA was lodged on December 1, 2015 for use of the existing building as a place of public worship and community facility after council had earlier issued the AICC with a notice of intention to serve an order for the organisation to cease operation.
The current DA seeks approval to use the ground floor and the lower ground floor of the property for prayer rooms and use as an office.
It would operate every day, except Sunday, with general prayer sessions held at different times throughout the day from 5.30am until 8pm.
The statement of environmental effects (SEE) prepared by Planning Ingenuity consultants for AICC reveals an expected attendance of up to 15 people at each of the nine general prayer sessions, Monday to Saturday, with a maximum of 100 people attending the sole congressional prayer session on Fridays, 12-2pm.
The property was originally built and used by the NSW Scouts in 1957 and was later sold to the Salvation Army with council granting them development consent to occupy and operate the building as a community facility in December 2000 but this was never enacted.
Repeated attempts by the North Shore Times to contact the applicants, Australian Islamic Cultural Centre, were not successful.
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