The Lino Lakes city council voted in favor of a moratorium to postpone Madinah Lakes development in the first ordinance reading on Monday night.

Dozens of people came to the meeting to voice their concerns during the public hearing. Some people think the development is the right fit for the city, while others do not.

Plans to build Madinah Lakes, a Muslim-focused community, is at the center of debate in Lino Lakes.

“It’s just the first time that Muslim developers are building housing for everybody,” Jaylani Hussein, CAIR-MN, said.

The nearly 1000-acre site would include housing, retail and a grocery store among other things.

The center point of the major development is a mosque.

Council members said the pause in development would be to conduct studies including community impact and an environmental review.

“There’s a lot of islamophobia. A lot of comments couched in too much traffic and too much density,” Dean Dovolis, Madinah Lakes project architect, said.

The Minnesota Council on American-Islamic relations, CAIR, calls the moratorium discriminatory.

“We’ve been fighting this is a continuation of islamophobia. That is when cities and towns use land use as a way to deny Muslims either moving in to housing or schools,” Hussein said.

When the project was introduced, there was push back rooted in concerns about additional traffic, overcrowding of schools and more stress on the infrastructure.
                                               
Residents who support the project also spoke out at the public hearing and expressed delaying development would not be beneficial.

The council will vote again during the second ordinance reading in the July 8 meeting.

If the moratorium passes, it will go into effect in August for one year.