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We need every citizen to be heard at the Pinellas County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct 27th! This week the Pinellas County Commission voted 4-3 to allow a land expansion for an Islamic Center in Tarpon on Keystone Road. This was presented as a Community Facility and several commissioners claim they didn’t know what they were voting on.
The Pinellas County commission voted on a 4-3 vote to expand a mosque on Keystone Road in Tarpon Springs.
Brian Scott and Kathleen Peters are both running for reelection on your ballot in two weeks and they both voted for this without input from the community.
The commission employees and Barry Burton seem to have used sleight-of-hand to get it onto the agenda in an agenda item without notice to the public and that never said it was a religious establishment or anything like that. Residents would've had no idea that's what they were doing. And they would have no idea of the scope of it.
Vincent Nowicki, Chris Scherer and Chris Latvala voted against. Probably mainly because they didn’t know enough to vote for. Which is the right and ethical thing to do.
Brian Scott and Kathleen Peters both voted for this mosque expansion. They claim they didn’t realize what they were doing. If true, and feel they were misled and didn’t understand the scope of what they were voting for then it needs to be addressed. It was an improper vote if significantly impacted citizens were not given notice.
The adjacent residents of the property are significantly and negatively impacted by this expansion from multiple perspectives. But aside from those perspectives, the people living in this community were not even given notice of this in any way, no signs were posted, and they did not have an opportunity to give input in any way.
Some things to consider:
1. It takes land out of rural. The 2.69 acres go from Residential Rural, the county's lowest-intensity land use, to Public/Semi-Public. Rural land in North County is meant to stay low intensity and that the county has very little open land left. People bought their properties up there with that in mind.
2. It sets a precedent. Once one Keystone Road parcel is changed, the next applicant can point to it, and the rural character of the corridor wears away one parcel at a time.
3. There's more pavement and runoff. A building about 1,000 sq ft larger plus new parking adds paved surface. More runoff carries oil, fertilizer and sediment into nearby lakes and wetlands, which flow into the area's water supply and preserve land. In Florida, a site's stormwater system usually only has to handle a design storm, not the biggest storms.
4. Trees and habitat are lost. Clearing for the building and parking usually removes trees and native cover. In a rural area, that cover links wildlife habitat.
5. There's more traffic and activity. A gathering place brings peak traffic and lighting at services and events, which adds noise and light near rural homes and natural areas.
6. There are other impacts that can differ from person to person.
7. There appears to be some bias going on because another small religious establishment had applied for the same thing nearby and got denied.
8. Community input : There was no alert to the surrounding neighborhoods, and they should at least get a heads up and be able to have input because it affects their community their property values their way of life and the environment in which they live.
Either some of these commissioners were misled, or they do not care about the community impact. It is only one or the other. The way this was done was highly improper and needs to be resolved.
We need everyone to show up and be heard. This is one of the most important meetings to show up at.
Side note: the Imam guy of this mosque is radical and we will provide videos of the type of oppression he is aiming to bring to Tarpon Springs.
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