Hillside Islamic Center Sues North Hempstead Over Expansion Denial

The Town of North Hempstead has a zoning problem, and it has a religion problem, and right now those two problems are heading toward federal court at the same time.

The Hillside Islamic Center, a mosque in New Hyde Park, filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the town, alleging that North Hempstead used its zoning authority to block a straightforward expansion request with no legitimate planning justification. The mosque wants to add 6,600 square feet and 63 parking spaces. Its own board chairman describes worshippers spilling outside because the building cannot hold the congregation.

This is not a complicated land use fight. The mosque’s site plan required no variances. The town’s own Planning Department found the application fully compliant with the town code. The zoning board recommended approval. And yet the town board voted in January 2024, along party lines, to deny it anyway.

The complaint describes “a campaign of obstruction dressed in the language of zoning.” That is a serious accusation. It also fits the documented record.

The board’s stated objections shifted over more than seven months of public hearings, moving from parking concerns to circulation concerns to the catch-all of neighborhood character. That kind of moving goalpost is a familiar pattern in zoning fights that have more to do with who is building than what is being built. Federal courts have seen this pattern before, and they have not been sympathetic to towns that play it.

The lawsuit invokes the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, federal law that prohibits governments from placing substantial burdens on religious exercise through zoning decisions. It also cites the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the New York State Constitution. That is a broad legal attack, and it is the kind of case where the town’s legal exposure grows considerably if a judge finds bad faith in the board’s conduct.

The town’s communications director, Umberto Mignardi, issued a statement saying the town has filed a formal response but will not discuss details publicly while the matter is before the court. That is the standard legal posture, and it is defensible. What is harder to defend is the underlying record.

Consider the timeline. The board denied the application in January 2024. The mosque filed an Article 78 proceeding in state court. In January 2025, the Nassau County Supreme Court reversed the town’s denial. The town appealed that ruling in September 2025. Now the mosque has gone to federal court.

At every step, the mosque has won or is winning on the merits. A state court judge already ruled in its favor. Board Chairman Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan made the point plainly: “A judge already gave a verdict on our behalf.” He is right. The town is now appealing a loss while simultaneously facing a new federal lawsuit that raises higher constitutional stakes.

North Hempstead is a Democrat-controlled town. The January 2024 vote ran along party lines. I have spent thirty years watching Nassau County politics, and I can tell you that zoning denials that track partisan lines and shift their justifications mid-hearing rarely hold up. This one did not hold up in state court. The odds that it survives federal scrutiny look worse, not better.

The harder question is what the town board thought it was accomplishing. If the goal was to satisfy community opposition, that opposition has now been documented in federal court filings as part of a larger pattern. That documentation does not help the town’s legal position. It makes RLUIPA claims easier to argue, not harder.

Bhuiyan said the center’s inability to expand is limiting its ability to serve the community, citing both worship and educational programs that have outgrown the current space. That is a concrete harm, and it has been ongoing for years while the town litigated a position that a state judge already rejected.

North Hempstead can keep fighting this in court. The bill for that fight falls on taxpayers. At some point, the town board owes those taxpayers an honest accounting of why an application that met every code requirement was denied in the first place.