Hearing on Wayne mosque ends abruptly as engineer falls ill
By: Philip DeVencentis
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
WAYNE - A public hearing on a controversial plan to build an Islamic temple on Colfax Road was cut short on August 3, [2026] when an expert for the applicant suddenly fell ill.
.....
The crowd of residents was dismissed just before 9:15 PM. when Mark Semeraro, an attorney for Ipray House Incorporated, returned form a shirt break and said the man's testimony could not continue that evening.
..... After four months, the Zoning Board of Adjustment is midway through the presentation.
..... Ipray House, a local nonprofit, wants to construct a 53,300-square-foot community center and mosque at 225 Colfax Road - a Passaic County artery hat carries traffic between Hamburg Turnpike and Terhune Drive. Houses of worship are conditionally permitted in the residential zone.
..... The proposed location in the 6th Ward has incited a homegrown action among neighbors to stop the mosque from being built. The group hired an attorney to mount a challenge against the plan.
.....
Wassim Nader, a civil engineer, tried to assuage neighborhood concerns when he testified on Monday [08/03/2026] night.
..... For example, Nader said, a, long row of fast-growing evergreens wooed go in along Colfax Road to shield he large building form view. Sixty arborvtae proposed, he said, but the mosque would plant more if the county allows the trees in the right-of-way.
.....
Nader, a co-founder of The Nader Group of Hackensack, also addressed storm-water runoff.
.....
Two-thirds of the 9.7-acre property would remain undisturbed, Nader said. The portion to be built on would have a state-approved system of bio-retention swales, green infrastructure and infiltration basins to release storm-water at a controlled rat, he said.
..... The next hearing on the application will be on September 8 [2026] at 7:30 PM. in the municipal courtroom, at475 Valley Road.