NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – After exceeding a city height limit, builders of a mosque on New Haven’s outskirts are wrestling with how to cut 24 feet from its soaring, crescent-topped minarets.
The city has halted all construction on the building until the mosque figures out what to do about the 81-foot towers sent from Turkey.
The steel and fiberglass minarets came in prefabricated sections and were assembled last year. A building permit was issued for a height of 57 feet, and by the time the discrepancy was discovered, the builders had moved on to other parts of the mosque, which is owned by the Turkish-American Religious Foundation.
The mosque, built to accommodate a growing Turkish Muslim community, sits across a busy road from an industrial park with a daycare center to one side and homes on another.
A city alder, Gerald Antunes, said some neighbors raised concerns about the height of the structure when the plans for the mosque were first presented five or six years ago. He discussed the height issue last week at a community management meeting.