City of Edmonton Issues Foundation and Footings Permit for the Edmonton Blue Mosque

Turkish Canadian Society has reached its biggest milestone and got permission from the City of Edmonton to lay the foundation for the Edmonton Blue Mosque on August 30, 2019.

On a day Turkish Canadians celebrate “Zafer Bayramı” (i.e Victory Day), the permit issued by the City of Edmonton, was welcomed by the TCS Board of Directors as a small “victory” after almost 3 years of planning and design work by numerous volunteers.

The permit was the hard part, but another challenge awaits us next. So far all the costs incurred for the project for permit applications and any engineering etc. work we couldn’t find volunteers for ha e been paid for by the Turkish Canadian Society. However, the financial resources of the Society are nowhere near the level required to successfully complete this mosque. We need the help of all muslims around the world to make this project come true. Visit the “How can I help” page to find out how you can donate to our Mosque.

Met with CoE Safety Codes Officers to Discuss TCS Building Permit Application

On July 24, TCS volunteer Project Consultant Suat Demirer, Project Coordinator Sinem Senol, Mosque Construction Committee Member Berk Ulusoy and representative from our architectural company, Camred Architects met with the City of Edmonton safety codes officers to discuss and finalize solutions for fire safety issues related to our proposed building.

Building a new religious assembly building in a mature neighbourhood is no easy task, but building it next to an old school building that was built in 1948 (when safety codes were much different) is even a bigger challenge.

It's not one we can not overcome, though. TCS architect and project consultant were able to offer solutions accepted by the Safety Codes officers during this meeting.

We now will need to resubmit the revised plans and will be inching closer to our building permit approval.

Representative from CoE's Urban Forestry Department on Site to Evaluate Two Avenue Trees

We are usually excited to post updates about our project. This is the one occasion we are posting with a bit of sorrow.

In order to line up the entrance to our parking lot with 155 Street and to preserve the safety of the traffic crossing, our project requires the removal of two avenue trees (pictured on the left) from 105 Avenue.

Today our project coordinator Sinem Senol met with a representative from the City of Edmonton's Urban Forestry Division, who took measurements of the trees and noted their conditions.

The older, larger tree seems to be a little unhealthy. Although we are sad to remove two beautiful trees from 105 Avenue, we are happy to reassure everyone living in the Canora neighbourhood and the Turkish Canadian Community that the landscaping plans we submitted to the City involve the planting of many more trees than we are cutting.

Once the project is complete we will even have a few fruit trees, and a small community garden for the community to benefit from. We don't have 3D renderings of the landscaping plan but we are definitely very excited about it.

The tree removal process is now in place. If you live in the Canora Community and have any concerns about the removal of these trees or would like to see our landscaping plans, feel free to get in touch with us at turkishcanadians.edmonton@gmail.com.

Servicing Agreement Signed with CoE, Building Permit Review Set to Proceed

It's not easy to get a $1.5 million religous assembly building constructed in a mature, established neighbourhood... especially when we are trying to do all the project coordination with volunteers. Still, we are making steady progress.

Another condition on our development permit was to sign a Servicing Agreement with the City of Edmonton for the construction of a commercial access to our planned mosque site, the removal of 2 avenue trees, and the aligning of the catch basin with 155 Street.

Our Treasurer, and Mosque Project Coordinator Sinem Senol started the Servicing Agreement application in early April, a servicing request was created by CoE on April 18th, and as of May 29 the signed agreement has been in place.

This means that we have officially met all the conditions outlined in our development permit application. Our Building Permit application has now been released for review. It's the busiest time of the year for CoE and we anticipate many meetings and revisions in the process but we are slowly getting there.

Building Permit Application Submitted for the TCS Mosque

After almost two years of very hard work, TCS volunteer project consultant Suat Demirer and President Ahmet Topal submitted the building permit application for the TCS Mosque on May 10, 2019.

It wasn't a cheap endeavor, either. For an estimated project budget of $1.5 million, our permit fee was a little over $20K.

This permit application fee was paid as an expense previously authorized by the TCS Board of Directors, but we an definitely use your donations to help us make this project come true.

Please visit the How Can You Help? page on our website and consider making a donation for our project.

Cross-Lot Access Easement Agreement Signed with EPSB and CoE

After months of negotiations with the City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Public School Board, TCS President Ahmet Topal and our Secretary Musa Ersoy signed the Cross-Lot Access Easement Agreement on March 20th per the authority granted to them through the TCS Bylaws.

The Agreement was signed and approved by the CoE and EPSB on April 8th. We have therefore cleared the most important condition on our development permit, and secured approximately 75 square meters of land to access the parking lot of our planned mosque.

The contract negotiations were primarily coordinated by our Treasures Sinem Senol. Naturally, Turkish Canadian Society Board of Directors have saught the advice of its legal counsel throughout the process, who reviewed and made recommendations about the agreement.

The contract was secured with no cost to TCS, just a minimal amount of lien was agreed upon between the parties to ensure that TCS undertakes any maintenance or repairs to the piece of land in a timely fashion.

Project Design Meetings Held Behind the Stage as we get close to the Building Permit Application

Just because we haven't posted an update for a while doesn't mean our TCS Mosque Project isn't going full speed ahead.

Our volunteer project designer Suat Demirer has been meeting with our project engineers and consultants behind the scenes for the past few months to finalize the electrical, mechanical, structural and architectural drawings required for the building permit application.

It's not an easy process. The results of the soil test and geotechnical analysis resulted in some minor changes to the elevation of the building.

 As a result, project drawings need to be updated. Mr. Demirer has spent at least a few thousand hours making all these updates since the inception of the project. Our architectural firm, Camred Architects has been graciously hosting all the engineering meetings.

Whenever he can, our President Ahmet Topal has been attending these project meetings to get updates on where we are standing with the project, so that he can share these developments with the very excited and anxious Turkish community.

We thank all our volunteer engineers and designers for their dedication and support for our project.