PITTSFIELD TWP. — Plans for a new Islamic academy were rejected by the Pittsfield Township Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Oct. 26 after the board voted unanimously to deny a zoning change request by the Michigan Islamic Academy in order to move forward with the project.

The school has said that it will likely pursue litigation soon over the decision, which they believe is discriminatory, according to local reports.

Lena Masri of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and an attorney for the academy told reporters that she was disappointed by the decision and believes that their rights under the Religious Institutions Land Use Protection Act along with their constitutional rights have been violated.

The U.S. Department of Justice had received a letter from CAIR about the situation this summer, which said that the organization would ask for a full investigation should the request be denied.

Residents in the area opposed to the rezoning said that they had concerns about traffic from the school that weren’t addressed; others from a neighboring subdivision reportedly said they didn’t expect a school to be built there when they began living in the area and didn’t want anything to be built. Members of the Planning Commission also said back in August that some requirements regarding landscaping, open space and others hadn’t been satisfied, but Masri said that the school has met them all and also noted that it was forced to spend extravagantly in order to fulfill the requirements.