Abstract
Building a mosque requires careful planning to comply with zoning laws and manage community sentiment. Consider the Islamic Society of Santa Barbara (ISSB), the first mosque in this coastal California region. It took ISSB nearly 19 years to open after they purchased property in a rural part of the county. Why 19 years? A combination of city planning obstacles created the delay. First, the establishment of the town of Goleta in 2002 required ISSB to pull its original permit from Santa Barbara County and transfer it to Goleta, which, as a newly incorporated city, still lacked a functioning planning commission. Later, Goleta lost key staff members, delaying the project by three years. Most significantly, ISSB faced overwhelming opposition across 16 public hearings spanning nearly seven more years. Opponents at these hearings raised concerns about many issues, including the mosque’s design, the building’s potential impact on bird flight, and, most notably, where people who come to pray will park their cars. ISSB is not alone. According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), opposition to mosques is at an all-time high. In this context, it can be easy to focus on overt discrimination and zoning disputes. But it is just as important to show how benign and overlooked technical requirements – like parking – can become a cudgel to stop Muslim Americans from building places to gather and pray.
