Noor Islamic center sues Hilliard for discrimination, violation of Constitutional rights
Attorneys representing the Noor Islamic Cultural Center previously warned Hilliard city council that they would be vulnerable to legal action if they didn't approve the mosque's plans to transform a vacant office building in northwestern Hilliard.
An entity of the cultural center followed through and filed a federal lawsuit April 14 against the City of Hilliard, city council and City Manager Michelle Crandall alleging discrimination and violation of First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit in federal district court follows an administrative appeal Britton Parkway Holding Inc. filed late last year in Franklin County District Court after the Hilliard council rejected their plan for transforming a 220,000-square-foot vacant office building.
The city's decision not only violated Hilliard's own zoning code and long-term plans, but also violated federal law and 'trampled on BPH's rights protected by the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions,' the lawsuit alleges.
Ronney Abaza, the chair of the Noor board, told the Dispatch in an interview that the local legal action that is still pending does not include any financial damages or penalties, which is part of the reason the federal lawsuit was necessary, he said.
'We've been injured financially by the discrimination that the city has pursued against us,' Abaza said. 'We've been harmed financially and so we want to be compensated for that.'
Joe Miller, an attorney representing BPH, told reporters at an April 14 press conference outside U.S. District Court in downtown Columbus that Hilliard put up barriers to Noor despite multiple attempts from the mosque to work with them.
'The city hopes that the Noor Islamic Cultural Center will go away and just relinquish the building — federal civil rights laws, however, exist for situations such as this,' Miller said. 'Never in my over 25 years of practice have I ever seen such overt discrimination and clear violations of a property owner's civil rights and right to express their faith.'
Miller said that the financial damages will be measured in the millions of dollars. And the longer this goes on, the more lost revenue will accumulate, Abaza added.
BPH purchased the building at 5550 Britton Parkway in February 2024 out of foreclosure with funds raised from the Muslim community in central Ohio. The building, once the site of BMW Financial Services, has been vacant for years amid the downturn in demand for office space following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Noor's plans for the building include keeping some office space and adding a school, STEM center, community event space and some worship use.
City officials refused to negotiate with BPH and its attorneys, the federal lawsuit alleges, and imposed 'completely arbitrary and unprecedented restrictions' standards on how they could use the building.
'Every time BPH addressed and satisfied a contrived demand of the city, defendants divined yet another baseless and unfounded obstacle to deny BPH's rights,' the lawsuit says.
Crandall previously said at a council meeting that the building is in an ideal location for economic development and high-income jobs that help the city, but the lawsuit says that the planned uses for the building would generate far more income tax than it does today.
The city has also approved other overtly Christian projects without fanfare and allowed other developments along the I-270 corridor that are not as lucrative to the city's income tax coffers, the lawsuit states.
'The lack of any rational basis for denying BPH's application reveals the true reason that defendants have fought BPH's redevelopment at every step: defendants simply want to limit Islamic worship in Hilliard,' the lawsuit says.
'(City officials) are targeting and discriminating against the Central Ohio Muslim community behind a thin veil of nonsensical and standardless judgements.'
A spokesperson for the City of Hilliard referred the Dispatch to the most recent statement the city has made about Noor: Hilliard followed existing land use regulations and that staff 'worked hard to accommodate their evolving plans" proposed for the office building.
'Noor has the opportunity to submit a new development plan for the site that aligns with the community plan,' the city's statement from November 2024 says. 'We remain committed to reaching a resolution so the building's potential can be maximized for the benefit of our entire community.'
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers the western suburbs for the Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Noor Islamic Cultural Center suing Hilliard in federal court
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