St. Lucie County, FL

In June 2013, St. Lucie County commissioners approved a rezoning application for a Muslim cemetery over the opposition of local residents. Added traffic, potential groundwater contamination, and the character of the residential neighborhood were among the concerns expressed at the commission's public meeting. The Muslim community addressed concerns by agreeing to place bodies in sealed containers and plant trees and bushes as a green fence around the cemetery property.

Florian Pohl

2013

Cemetery: Petition to rezone more than five acres of property located at the intersection of Midway Road and Christensen Road for use as a cemetery with approximately 2,600 burial sites

Approved with condition to bury bodies in sealed vaults

In St. Lucie County, Florida, a proposal to construct the Baraka Center Muslim Cemetery in a residential neighborhood met with opposition from local residents. Still, it was ultimately approved by county commissioners in a unanimous vote.

On June 20, 2013, the St. Lucie County Zoning & Planning Commission recommended to the County Board of Commissioners the rezoning of the Christensen Road property from AR-1 (agricultural-residential) to I (industrial) and the issuance of a conditional use permit for a private cemetery (St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Commission, 2013, Jun 20). During the July 2 meeting of the County Board of Commissioners, residents opposed the project, citing concerns about the aesthetic and emotional impact of living near a cemetery. They also raised practical concerns about increased traffic and potential environmental impacts on nearby wells from Muslim burial practices (Hait, 2013, Jul 2). In response, the Muslim community addressed the visual concerns by committing to using trees and bushes to screen the cemetery from view as much as possible. Despite the opposition, the County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the project, imposing the condition that bodies be buried in sealed vaults to alleviate environmental concerns.

Now operational, the Baraka Center Muslim Cemetery serves the wider Muslim community of the Treasure Coast area. It is listed on the website of the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce (ICFP), one of the oldest Islamic communities in the area. In 2013, during the controversy, the ICFP's mosque was located nearby on Midway Road. In a tragic turn of events, on September 11, 2016, the mosque was set on fire and partially destroyed by an Islamophobic arsonist (Detman, 2016, Sep 12). In February 2017, the ICFP acquired a new property, a former church complex, on Oleander Avenue in Fort Pierce.

References

• Detman ,G. (2016,  September 12). Arsonist torches Pulse nightclub killer's mosque in Fort Pierce. CBS 12 News. Web.
• Hait, Ari. (2013, July 2). Muslim cemetery approved in St. Lucie County. ABC-25 WPBF. Web. 
• St. Lucie County Planning & Zoning Commission. (2013, June 20). Planning & Zoning Commission public minutes. CivicClerk. Web.

June 11, 2024