ZBA signs off on Muslim cemetery pact

DUDLEY - The permitting process for a cemetery that the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester hopes to build on Corbin Road will begin again, after the Zoning Board of Appeals signed off on a settlement agreement Thursday night that seems to offer little chance the permits won’t be approved.

The board quickly went behind closed doors and said it would not convene in open session. However, after the meeting, Town Administrator Greg Balukonis returned to the meeting room and handed out copies of the eight-page settlement agreement.

The ZBA’s attorney, Gary Brackett, said the move means the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester will now go before the ZBA and other town boards for public hearings and permits.

After many months of wrangling, the Islamic Society had sought relief through the Land Court. Now, the document states, the parties “will file a joint motion ... requesting the Land Court to remand the action to the ZBA for further proceedings on the merits of the (Islamic Society’s) application for a Special Permit.”

The Islamic Society planned to buy 55 acres on Corbin Road with the hopes of developing a cemetery. Members of the Islamic Society currently travel to Enfield, Connecticut, or farther to bury their dead and had hoped to find a site closer to Worcester so they could more easily visit family graves.

A year ago, the Islamic Society applied for a special permit from the ZBA, saying the property would be used for “religious purposes.” Since then, residents have weighed in with concerns about the quality of their water being affected by moldering bodies that have not been embalmed, as well as concerns about traffic and “crazy music.”

Selectmen later said the town should have been offered right of first refusal on the sale of the land since it was held in an agricultural preservation restriction. The board has since dropped the idea of the town buying the land.

Once the Land Court agrees to the joint motion to put the matter back in front of the ZBA, that board must reopen its public hearing and consider a plan for a 6-acre cemetery on the parcel. That hearing will last for one night only and will start with the ZBA’s lawyer explaining that the Islamic Society has “made a sufficient showing to demonstrate that its proposed use of the cemetery is for religious purposes.”

The ZBA must then vote to approve the permit, and the Islamic Society must then seek a permit from the Board of Health, which cannot exceed criteria used for the Waldron Cemetery expansion or other state Department of Environmental Protection criteria.

The Islamic Society must provide the ZBA with a proposed plan for a 6-acre cemetery and offer an affidavit that the burial ground is a religious purpose within the terms of the state's so-called Dover Amendment.

The settlement also dictates that there will be a 10-year moratorium on the Islamic Society's expansion of the cemetery.

The permitting may move to the Conservation Commission, but the Islamic Society believes that is not required.

The agreement also forbids selectmen from placing the matter on a town meeting warrant and, should a citizen petition land it before voters, the board is to recommend that voters approve the use of the land for a cemetery.

The agreement is contingent on the Islamic Society’s successful purchase of the property and, once the steps are completed, the Islamic Society agrees not to sue the town or its insurer.

Five women who attended Thursday’s brief ZBA meeting, some of whom have spoken in opposition to the cemetery at past hearings, stayed after the session reading and quietly discussing the settlement agreement.

It was not clear how long the Land Court process may take or when the ZBA’s continued hearing would be held.