Cooksville, MD

The preliminary concept for the 65-acre property includes two school buildings, an administration building, a mosque, a daycare center, and residential facilities. The proposed on-site mosque would serve 800 local families, with a maximum occupancy of between 2,500 and 5,000 worshipers for the major holidays. The property is zoned rural-conservation requiring conditional-use permits for educational uses.

Bryce Bentinck

2013

The preliminary concept for the 65-acre property includes two school buildings, an administration building, a mosque, a daycare center, and residential facilities. The proposed on-site mosque would serve 800 local families, with a maximum occupancy between 2,500 and 5,000 worshipers for the major holidays. The property is zoned rural-conservation, with conditional-use permits for educational uses.

The purchase agreement between Dar-us Salaam and the Woodmont Educational Foundation expires before the Board of Appeals decides on the Muslim community’s revised proposal. The property of the former Woodmont Academy is purchased by St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in 2017.

In June 2012, Dar-us-Salaam signed a purchase agreement for the property of the former Woodmont Academy to build its Education and Community Campus in Cooksville, MD. The community entered this agreement on the condition that the zoning of the property could be changed from rural with an educational conditional-use permit (CUP) to Community Center Transition zoning. Although the Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning recommended the change, the comprehensive zoning request ultimately was withdrawn due to strong public opposition from local residents at an initial hearing before the Howard County Planning Board on April 8, 2013 (Ames, 2013, Jun 19 ). To secure the required zoning permits, Dar-us-Salaam decided to go through the conditional-use process--a more time-consuming and expensive alternative. On May 15, 2014, a county land-use judge approved the CUP but with extremely restrictive conditions. Dar-us-Salaam appealed the decision and submitted an updated, scaled-down proposal. The Howard County Board of Appeals eventually dismissed the appeal after Dar-us-Salaam’s purchase agreement had expired in late September 2014. 

Before any applications were submitted to the local government, the Carriage Hill HOA held a meeting to discuss Dar-us-Salaam’s plans. About 300 residents were in attendance. Most of these residents strongly opposed the project, espousing the view that the proposed usage was too intensive for the area. Opponents asserted that western Howard County was protected by rural conservation and rural residential zoning, and that this project put the town's rural nature at risk. Local residents soon after formed the nonprofit Residents for Responsible Development of Woodmont (RRDW) and hired legal counsel to assist in their opposition to Dar-us-Salaam zoning requests (Western Howard residents fighting plan for Islamic center, 2013, Apr 8). Local residents and the RRDW opposed both the rezoning and the CUP applications, stating that the project would overwhelm traffic and nearby roads and set the wrong precedent for zoning in the future. 

In May of 2014, a County land-use judge approved the conditional-use permits of Dar-us-Salaam, but with thirteen conditions. The most restrictive was the denial of the proposed residential use. Other limitations included the prohibition of exterior amplification devices, the requirement that the congregation provide alternative transportation methods to events such as a bus or shuttle, no outdoor lighting other than for parking, no overnight visitors, and limitations on occupancy after 4 p.m. The Dar-us-Salaam community appealed the decision along with a revised proposal that reduced the size of the project and limited residential facilities. The Howard County Department of Planning recommended the revised proposal for approval. After several days of public hearings before the Howard County Board of Appeals in October 2014, the Board voted to table the case because Dar-us-Salaam’s purchase agreement had expired in late September. The appeal was finally dismissed six months later when Dar-us-Salaam did not sign a new contract with the Woodmont Educational Foundation (Yaeger, 2014, Oct 31).

In 2017, the Woodmont Academy property was sold to the St. Mary Coptic Catholic Church for use as a church and educational facility for around 100 families. The Church was able to gather the necessary CUPs to make this conversion. The Dar-us-Salaam community remains at its original campus in College Park, MD.

References

• Ames, B. (2013, June 19). Rezoning request for Woodmont Academy withdrawn. Howard County Times (MD). Retrieved from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. 
• Western Howard residents fighting plan for Islamic center: Planning Board to hold hearing this evening on zoning change request. (2013, April 8).  The Baltimore Sun, p. 2A. Retrieved from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. 
• Yeager, A. (2014, October 31). Woodmont, site of proposed Muslim community center, placed back on the market. Columbia Flier. Retrieved from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current. 

July 27, 2021