- Darul Khair Centre hopes to relocate its proposed mosque from 27 Winona Dr. to 12662 Tenth Line.
- The new site emerged through mediation between the Town and the applicant following Council’s refusal of the Winona Dr. application.
- Development of the larger property would allow for the return of amenities removed from the Winona plans to satisfy parking requirements.
- The revised proposal includes 168 surface parking spaces, 39 more than required.
- The general building height is proposed at 8.5 metres, with minarets reaching 11.75 metres.
- A preliminary traffic brief estimates an average total of 563 vehicle trips added along Tenth Line during the Friday midday peak.
- The Winona Dr. application remains before the Ontario Land Tribunal as the new proposal proceeds through the Town’s planning process.
- A public planning meeting for the relocated development is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sept. 30.
A mosque proposal refused by Stouffville Council in May is returning with a new address, a larger property, and community amenities that were removed from the earlier proposal to satisfy parking requirements.
Darul Khair Centre Stouffville has relocated its place of worship application from 27 Winona Dr. to 12662 Tenth Line, a vacant parcel currently used for agricultural purposes. A public planning meeting has been scheduled for Sept. 30, when the applicant will present the revised proposal to Council and local residents.
The new site did not emerge from another round of design revisions, but through mediation that followed Darul Khair’s appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT). It is the latest chapter in a planning file that has left the congregation in limbo since June 2025.
Council refused the Winona Dr. zoning amendment in a 1–4 vote on May 6, with Councillor Maurice Smith in support and Mayor Iain Lovatt and Councillor Sue Sherban abstaining. Town Staff had found the proposal consistent with local and provincial planning policies and recommended approval.
A resulting Notice of Refusal cited two reasons: the location and size of the property, and traffic expected to be generated by the place of worship. Council also encouraged Darul Khair Centre to continue working with Staff, including on the possibility of an alternate site.
Finding the Tenth Line Site
Before proceeding with their appeal to a formal OLT hearing, which would result in a final decision being made by a provincial adjudicator, Darul Khair Centre entered into mediation with the Town.
In a conversation with Bullet Point News, Mayor Lovatt said he has maintained a “good working relationship” with Darul Khair Centre. He had anticipated that the votes were not there to support the application and asked Council to defer its decision rather than risk a potential hearing.
The proposed Tenth Line site is outside existing residential neighbourhoods. (source: n Engineering Inc. traffic brief)
The Mayor acknowledged their right to appeal, particularly given Staff had recommended approval of the Winona application. After it was escalated to the OLT, Lovatt approached the owner of the Tenth Line farmland to determine whether there was an interest in severing a portion of the property for a place of worship.
“He was interested, so I put the parties together,” Lovatt told us. “They had a conversation, and that brought us to where we are today.”
A Bigger Site Returns Lost Amenities
A planning justification report from David French of Storey Samways Planning Ltd., dated Sept. 3, 2026, and submitted on behalf of Darul Khair Centre, details the new submission.
At approximately one hectare, the Tenth Line parcel is more than four times the size of 27 Winona Dr.
That additional space has allowed the return of amenities stripped from the earlier concept. Following the June 2025 statutory public meeting, a gymnasium and community hall were removed from the Winona plans, cutting the parking requirement and bringing the application into compliance with the Town’s minimum parking standards.
The Tenth Line concept restores much of that programming. Alongside men’s and women’s prayer halls, the two-storey building would include a basketball court, classrooms, a library, multi-purpose areas, a baby room, offices, and kitchen areas across roughly 2,800 square metres of gross floor area.
An internal roadway wraps around the proposed mosque, providing access to 168 parking spaces. (source: n Architecture Inc. drawings)
The one-hectare parcel would also be able to accommodate an expansive surface parking lot. Where the Winona proposal offered 76 spaces within the building footprint, the new site plan surrounds the building with 168 surface spaces, 39 more than required. Two full-movement driveways with access to Tenth Line are also proposed.
According to submitted drawings, the mosque’s general height is proposed at 8.5 metres, with minarets peaking at 11.75 metres. The Winona Dr. design, in comparison, proposed 14.5 metres to the roofline and roughly 20 metres to the top of the minaret.
Zoning By-Law Considerations
As at Winona Dr., places of worship are a permitted use on the Tenth Line lands under Stouffville’s Official Plan. The planning justification report notes that higher-level provincial policies, similar to the Town’s principle planning document, identify places of worship as “an integral component of a complete community.”
Similar to the planning context at 27 Winona Dr., the Tenth Line property’s Development Reserve zoning does not permit place of worship land uses. A Zoning By-law Amendment is therefore required to rezone the site to Institutional.
Two further approvals are needed. A consent application looks to sever the parcel from the larger Tenth Line property, and the Site Plan Approval process will govern final design, access points, parking layout, and other aspects of site and building functionality.
Traffic Impact Study To Be Conducted
The Tenth Line location appears to ease traffic concerns that drove much of the Winona application’s opposition. The mosque would be situated along an arterial roadway and does not border Forsyth Farm Dr., placing it entirely outside the nearby residential neighbourhood.
A preliminary traffic brief prepared by n Engineering Inc., the same firm that conducted traffic studies for the Winona application, concludes the development can be accommodated from a transportation standpoint. However, it recommends a full Traffic Impact Study be completed.
The brief identified Friday midday prayer as the critical period, assessing three example scenarios to quantify expected total vehicular movements in and out of the proposed development. Estimates ranged from 389 to 712 vehicle trips during that peak hour, with an average of 563 adopted as the working figure.
Road use along Tenth Line during that time has not yet been studied, but weekday volumes drawn from a traffic analysis prepared for a nearby development recorded 313 total vehicular movements during the morning peak hour and 349 during the afternoon peak.
Tenth Line widens to two southbound lanes along the property frontage, and Darul Khair’s consultants believe it offers the capacity needed for visitors to enter and exit the site without significantly disrupting traffic flow. They also hope planned internal traffic lanes will keep prayer-period queuing entirely on the property rather than extending out onto Tenth Line.
Looking Ahead
Servicing is available, but not at the property line. A submitted servicing report proposes sanitary sewer and water connections running through a proposed easement to the northern point of Noah’s Farm Trail. Stormwater flows would be directed to the existing ditch along Tenth Line.
No decision will be made during the public planning meeting scheduled for Sept. 30, which takes place at the Town’s Municipal Offices building at 7 p.m. Staff will consider feedback received at the meeting as they continue their review, and a recommendation report will be presented to Council for a decision at a later date.
As the new proposal moves through the planning process, the Winona Dr. appeal remains before the Tribunal. Should Council turn down the new submission, Darul Khair Centre will still have the ability to escalate the original appeal to a hearing.
Cover image sourced from a submitted rendering by n Architecture Inc.
