Star Tribune
Muslim-focused community on hold as Lino Lakes approves building moratorium
There will be no new homes, retail outlets, parks or a mosque built in the northwest quadrant of Lino Lakes — at least for a year.
The Lino Lakes City Council on Monday in a 4-1 vote approved a one-year moratorium on residential development in a 980-acre plot along Main Street roughly between Sunset and 4th avenues, and buy the north metro suburb time to complete a master plan for the area.
Monday’s vote became the latest roadblock for Zikar Holdings, which is pushing to build a Muslim-oriented community to be called Madinah Lakes on the Robinson Sod Farm property. The neighborhood would include single-family homes, townhomes, apartments, a senior living facility and a large mosque in the center. Retail outlets and parks also are part of the proposed development.
“It’s demoralizing,” said Suleiman Adan, deputy executive director for CAIR-Minnesota. “There is always something put in front of these developers.”
Mayor Rob Rafferty requested residents and other stakeholders who signed up to speak during the open comment period Monday refrain from making comments relating to racism and Islamophobia, themes that have emerged in previous meetings as the contentious issue has been debated among those in support and against the project.
Members of the city’s public safety team were present to ensure the meeting remained orderly.
Patty Miller, a 45-year Lino Lakes resident, supported the council’s decision, saying, “Let’s do it right and have well-planned developments, not just well-intended developments.”
Zikar Holdings submitted an application to the city in late April. Since then, at several City Council meetings, some citizens have raised concerns about increased traffic and noise, burdening schools, straining the city’s water system, environmental issues and fears about too much growth too fast.
Minnesota state law allows municipalities to enact moratoriums while they conduct studies to protect the planning process as well as the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.
In the past month, CAIR-Minnesota representatives have claimed the City Council has placed Madinah Lakes under more scrutiny than other projects.
“It’s almost clear from the moment the application for this development was submitted members of the City Council made an attempt to stop it from happening,” Adan said Tuesday. “We wished they had been upfront from the beginning.”
While neither CAIR nor Zikar Holdings have announced their next steps, both have previously said they might take legal action.
But that threat did not dissuade the council from instituting a moratorium, which will go into effect Aug. 15.
“No amount of tactics, intimidation, bullying will taint the legitimacy of our work,” Council Member Chris Lyden said before voting in favor of the moratorium. “Because I don’t agree with you does not make me Islamophobic.”
Michael Ruhland, another City Council member, pointed out that Zikar Holdings submitted its application after the city announced it was looking into enacting a moratorium.
“That does not translate into discrimination,” he said.
Developer Faraaz Yussuf said he was not surprised by Monday’s outcome, adding that it’s not the end of Madinah Lakes. He said Zikar Holdings has claimed 11 miles of roads in Lino Lakes through the “Adopt a Highway” program and has a clean-up day set for July 20.
“We plan to be part of the Lino Lakes community. We are not going anywhere,” he said in a phone interview. “We face these battles in every city we go to. It just gives us a resolve to make the development a reality.”
The trial included testimony from a Towson University marketing professor who conducted a survey about the advertisements.
The pictures are actually tightly controlled by contracts negotiated between the models and the magazines, said Chamberlin, a modelling agent who testified during the trial. A 30-year veteran of the industry who has represented Brooke Shields, Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer and others, Chamberlin during his testimony pulled back the curtain on the high-stakes negotiations that take place for supermodels, saying none of the images that the Cajun Club used were intended for strip club advertisements.
“We know exactly what they’ll be shooting, what product, and what type of work, and then we know how that’s going to be distributed and any other questions. It’s all negotiated before the model sets foot onto the set,” he testified.
Even if the women had consented to the use of the photographs in Cajun Club advertisements, Chamberlin said, it would have cost the club more than $1.2 million in fees.
The jury ruled in favor of the women and said they were owed amounts ranging from $1,500 to $15,000.
A freeway ramp in downtown Minneapolis used by thousands of drivers each day closed Monday morning and won’t reopen for five weeks.
Minnesota Department of Transportation crews shut down the ramp from northbound I-35W to eastbound I-94 at 5 a.m. Monday and it won’t reopen until Nov. 29
In addition, both directions of I-94 will be reduced to two lanes between 11th Avenue S. and Franklin Avenue.
The closures will allow crews to construct crossovers that motorists will use in 2025 when MnDOT begins maintenance work on five bridges along I-94 between downtown Minneapolis and the Franklin Avenue bridge that crosses I-94.
Drivers needing to get from northbound I-35W to eastbound I-94 will be directed to go north on I-35W to Hwy. 36 and south on I-35E.
Next year, both directions of I-94 will be reduced to two lanes between Hwy. 55/Hiawatha Avenue and the Franklin Avenue bridge.
The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
City Council members criticized MPD for their handling of the case, expressing outrage at the department’s inability to protect a resident “from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
The Moturis have reported to police at least 19 incidents of vandalism, property destruction, theft, harassment, hate speech and other verbal threats, including threats of assault, involving Sawchak since last fall — shorty after the couple moved in. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
Over the weekend, as frustration continued to boil over about the lack of a resolution in the case, several more council members released statements demanding that MPD move in to make an arrest.
“Our Chief of Police is hiding behind excuses, and our Mayor…is just hiding,” Council Member Emily Koski wrote on X.
Less than two hours later, from the scene of an unrelated fatal shooting at a homeless encampment, O’Hara acknowledged that his police force failed to protect Moturi and issued an apology.
