No decision on parking near mosque

City council deferred a plan on Monday to impose new parking restrictions along two residential streets near the city’s only mosque after the president of the Muslim association asked councillors to reconsider.

Dr. Muhammed Shaikh is a local internist and the president of the Kawartha Muslim Religious Association. He asked council at a meeting on Monday to rethink a plan to impose calendar parking along a section of Valleyview Drive and a section of Crowley Crescent near Masjid Al-Salaam on Parkhill Road West.

The parking restrictions would force many people to walk a long way to the mosque, he said, when parking problems have lessened lately.

At a committee meeting on Oct. 19, councillors gave preliminary approval to impose parking restrictions there after a staff said the residential streets became clogged, starting a few years ago, at the mosque’s busiest times.

But on Monday, Shaikh said the parking problems decreased dramatically a year ago after the city started allowing the burgeoning Muslim community to use the city-owned Evinrude Centre for Friday prayers.

Shaikh thanked the city for that arrangement, saying the community will happily return to the Evinrude once the COVID-19 restrictions are loosened to allow large gatherings again.

In the meantime, local Muslims have been praying at the mosque on Fridays — but in far fewer numbers, Shaikh said, meaning no more parking woes. Furthermore the congestion from parking on residential streets is unlikely to ever crop up again, he added, since the community will return to the Evinrude Centre once it’s safe to do so.

Shaikh said there could still be a lot of cars parked near the mosque when Ramadan arrives, April 12 to May 11, 2021. But he said the mosque would be willing to hire a parking official.

Coun. Don Vassiliadis called for a deferral of the plan so the city can discuss Shaikh’s idea about managing Ramadan traffic.

Coun. Stephen Wright said that was a good idea.

“We have to add a cultural lens to these decisions,” Wright said.

Wright also asked city staff whether an application for federal or provincial money to fund a diversity officer on contract had been successful. City community services commissioner Sheldon Laidman said it was turned down but he would be reporting to council on Nov. 9 about the matter.