For nearly a decade, Mexican immigrant Javier Sanchez worked in the shadow of the Islamic Center of the South Bay in Lomita adjacent to his Twin’s Bike Shop.
But then the center embarked on a major expansion in 2014 on its 1.5-acre site that required a significant amount of construction, and nothing has been the same since.
Despite city-imposed conditions on the project, including measures to reduce the resulting dust from blowing into neighboring homes and businesses, it seemed to Sanchez and some of his neighbors that the company “brazenly ignored” the requirements, according to a lawsuit he filed in October 2015.
“Plaintiffs have had to expend countless hours cleaning their inventory and have had to hire additional employees solely for that purpose only to have ICSB and its contractor continue blowing smoke clouds across the neighborhood,” the lawsuit reads in part.
“For example, the clothing and other accessories need to be continually washed to keep them presentable for sale, only to have fugitive dust come back and make the merchandise dirty again,” it added. “And, when bicycles are sold, moving parts and chains have to disassembled, cleaned and reoiled before the bicycles can be taken by purchasers.
“Moreover, plaintiffs have begun experiencing physical and emotional distress including headaches, eye irritation and respiratory issues as a result of the dust.”
With customers complaining and negative Yelp reviews rolling in, Sanchez finally decided to move. Reluctantly, he relocated his business from the dense commercial area to a smaller storefront in a nearby Harbor City strip mall.
“It’s not the business the way it used to be,” Sanchez said. “This is not a commercial area, it’s more residential. Here, it’s really slow. We lost 80 percent of our business.”
Indeed, the only thing keeping it afloat, Sanchez said, was income from some real estate investments he made.
Sanchez said it was “intimidating” for the owner of a small business to take on a large religious institution with considerably more resources.
Indeed, a member of the mosque’s governing board warned Sanchez that if he sued the center would drag out the lawsuit until his business went under, he alleged.
Frightened neighbors declined to join the lawsuit. Among them was a woman unable to use her outdoor pool for two years because the water would get dirty quickly and clog the pool’s pumps, requiring new ones, Sanchez said.
In addition, Sanchez said he received an anonymous phone call threatening “to go after him and his family” if his legal action stopped construction.
Indeed, he did win an injunction against the center and its contractor, MPG Construction, that required the parties to take steps to reduce the construction dust leaving the property.
However, Sanchez’s attorney, Torrance-based Ernesto Aldover, said the steps proved ineffective and dust and dirt continued to leave the site in violation of the court order.
City officials never heeded the neighborhood’s pleas to enforce the conditions imposed upon the construction, Sanchez said.
Sanchez suspects that’s related to a federal religious discrimination lawsuit the mosque filed against the city after municipal officials initially denied the project the approvals it needed to build. That also triggered a Department of Justice probe into whether the religious institution’s civil rights were violated.
Eventually, the city approved revised plans anyway.
A lawyer representing the mosque did not return a call seeking comment Friday.
Alleging the construction was a nuisance and negligent, Sanchez is seeking compensation for the unspecified financial losses his business has incurred and punitive damages as a result of what the lawsuit describes as the defendant’s “malicious acts.”
The case is scheduled for trial in October.
