Community Board Approves Plan To Build Mosque Near WTC Site

A Manhattan community board Tuesday approved the construction of a mosque and Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center site.

The measure passed 29-1, with nine abstinent.

The vote was not necessary, but it is seen as the key to achieving public support for the project.

It comes as word of a decades-old landmark status of the program may threaten the project.

City officials said yesterday that the 150 year old building would be demolished mosque is historically and architecturally important as it was built in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style.

It was proposed as a landmark in the late 1980's, but after a preliminary hearing, no action was taken.

Sites Conservation Commission says it will hold a second public consultation in early summer. The Commission says the building has landmark status, the building still modified for use as a mosque.

The Cordoba Foundation $ 100,000,000 plan has angered some residents and their families, 11 September victims who say it is not sensitive.

Those who were behind the project say it will help to improve relations between Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide.