STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – The Sterling Heights City Council voted Tuesday to accept a lawsuit settlement in a controversy over the building of a mosque.
Sterling Heights will have to pay a deductible of $350,000. The insurance company reached an undisclosed settlement with the AICC.
The deal allows the mosque to be built, but not at the height the AICC wanted. No street parking or outdoor sound projection will be allowed.
The line in front of Sterling Heights City Hall started forming a couple of hours before the City Council meeting began.
The meeting was standing room only as residents waited to hear the details of the city's settlement of two federal lawsuits that would allow the building of a mosque. The Department of Justice sued Sterling Heights for blocking the project.
Almost everyone in attendance asked the City Council not to settle.
"Did you consider the people who live here? The noise? the children?" a resident said. "This is going to be schools, not just one day, two days, with funerals, etc.
"It is an admission of guilt, an admission of discrimination. You are going to say the whole city is discriminating."
"This has been a black eye," a resident said. "We should put this to bed and move on."
Tempers flared at the end of the meeting, as none of the residents got what they wanted.
The decision ensures that Sterling Heights and the AICC are determining the outcome, not leaving it up to a judge or jury.
News conference Wednesday
United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and representatives of the American Islamic Cultural Center held a press conference Wednesday to announce specifics on the settlement with the city of Sterling Heights.
WATCH HERE: US attorney's newser on settlement in Sterling Heights mosque controversy
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