Lino Lakes mosque proposal faces scrutiny, gets support during meeting

LINO LAKES, Minn. (FOX 9) - You needed a ticket to get into the Lino Lakes City Hall council chambers on Tuesday night.

Residents have been showing up at meetings in the hundreds this spring, and more than 2,000 people have signed a petition expressing their opposition to large-scale densely populated developments, like the currently proposed Madinah Lakes project.

Developer Faraaz Yussuf and architect Dean Dovolis want to develop a 150-acre sod farm into residential housing and businesses, centered around a mosque.

"Because it was advertised as an Islamic community, I will simply use the word that panic broke out in Lino Lakes," Dovolis told FOX 9.

Residents have been showing up at meetings in the hundreds this spring, and more than 2,000 people have signed a petition expressing their opposition to large-scale densely populated developments, like the currently proposed Madinah Lakes project. (FOX 9)

"Our fear is not of Muslims. It’s of over building and excess population density that will destroy the character of the community we love," one community member said.

On Tuesday, Lino Lakes city council members said at a meeting that they are in favor of a moratorium on city development, beginning in mid-August, to allow the city to do more studies.

"We don’t believe it’s fair, it’s targeted just to our development," developer Faraaz Yussuf said. "We’re going to continue to push to be evaluated on the merits of our proposal, and we believe the merits are strong."

"Moratoriums are not racist, nor are they Islamophobic, that is a requirement to figure these projects out," another community member said at the meeting. "You should not be bullied into approving any development, and that is exactly what is happening."