Bernalillo County delays hearing on proposed North Valley Islamic Center

The fight over a proposed 50,000-square-foot Islamic center in Albuquerque’s North Valley was pushed to July 1 after a Bernalillo County Planning Commission hearing was interrupted by protesters and the applicant asked for more time over safety concerns.

The project is planned for a four-acre site at Second Street and Alameda Blvd., where the Albuquerque Islamic Center says it has outgrown its current school and worship space at Menaul Blvd. and Wyoming Blvd. The proposal calls for a two-story building in a part of the North Valley where traffic, drainage, lighting, noise and rural character have already become flashpoints in broader growth debates.

Opposition has centered on how a larger facility would affect the neighborhood around Second Street and Alameda. Members of the Maria Diers Neighborhood Association raised concerns about the building’s height and the traffic the center could draw into an area already sensitive to development pressure. The hearing itself was disrupted by protesters, underscoring how quickly a land-use dispute in Bernalillo County turned into a broader confrontation over who gets to shape the future of the corridor.

Talha Mohamed, president of the Albuquerque Islamic Center, said the original appeal objections were framed around traffic, but the rhetoric escalated into anti-Muslim and anti-Islam attacks. He said the center received phone calls and text messages telling members to “get out” and saying “it was not their country.” Mohamed said the center asked to postpone the vote after receiving threats tied to the project.

Mohamed also said the center has heard support from other faith communities and is keeping an open line with the Maria Diers Neighborhood Association. The delay leaves the project in the middle of Bernalillo County’s land-use process, where public hearings and appeals can be continued to later meetings rather than decided in one sitting.

The next discussion is expected at the County Planning Commission on July 1, a session that could determine whether the proposal moves forward, is altered or remains stalled in the face of organized neighborhood resistance. For North Valley residents tracking growth fights across the metro, the case has become a sign of how traffic worries, precedent and public pressure can slow major projects long before a final vote.