Hilliard City Council this week clashed with Noor Islamic Cultural Center representatives over use of a former office building located at 5550 Britton Parkway.
During a lengthy meeting Tuesday, council unanimously denied zoning changes that would have allowed Noor to use the building for a variety of purposes, including a community center.
Britton Parkway Holding, Inc., an extension of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, bought the 226,000-square-foot building and its 14.9 acres west of I-270 in February. BMW Financial Services occupied the building until 2023.
The building is zoned for office use and the city considers it “premium office area” that, if occupied by the right company, could generate substantial income taxes.
Noor Islamic Cultural Center members want put medical care, retail, childcare and a school in the building. Noor also wants to make a community center and prayer space, a use that city leadership seemed hesitant to accept.
"Why is the city so opposed to us having this community center, this space to gather, to have parties, lectures, Sunday school classes, interfaith activities, and yes, to pray," Dr. Ronney Abaza, the chair of Noor’s board, asked Hilliard City Council this week.
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The community center – an aspect of the proposal that Noor calls “critical” – would take up about 9% of the building’s floor space. Abaza said Hilliard City Council was “sending the community down a road of conflict and division,” over the use of the small portion of a currently vacant office building.
“The unfortunate reality is that we feel we are being treated differently because of who we are and that any other developer who proposed this project would not have been treated as we have been,” Abaza said.
He argued that the proposed uses of the building would generate tax revenue for the city and that the community center is desperately needed.
Noor Islamic Cultural Center wanted to expand at its current site on Wilcox Road before the COVID-19 pandemic, but that plan had to be put on hold. In the meantime, leaders realized expanding in place wouldn’t solve all of site’s problems, Abaza said.
Since then, Noor has opened two satellite locations in New Albany and Plain City, but the community has continued to grow.
Hilliard City Manager Michelle Crandall said she wishes Noor had reached out before buying the building on Britton Parkway.
"We could have helped them understand the importance of this building and site as a premium office location and how much that translates into the city being able to provide critical services, infrastructure and amenities for our community,” Crandall said.
She said she also wished that the building had not caused so much tension and divisiveness between the city and members of the Muslim community.
Noor's lawyers have threatened to take legal action against the city.
