After more than a decade of planning and legal challenges, a new Muslim community center has received final approval in Pittsfield Township, Michigan.

On May 8, township planners unanimously approved the site plan for the Hidaya Muslim Community Center and an associated residential development, news sources reported. The project will feature a 58,000-square-foot community center and 11 duplex buildings with a total of 22 housing units. It will be located between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Led by the Ann Arbor-based Hidaya Muslim Community Association, the center will include prayer halls for men and women, a gymnasium with basketball courts, multi-purpose rooms, and other community spaces. Although designed to serve the local Muslim population, the center will be open to people of all faiths, aiming to promote cultural understanding, said Mohamad Issa, the association’s treasurer.

The project originated nearly 15 years ago as an effort to build an Islamic school. In 2011, a rezoning request was denied by township officials over traffic and neighborhood concerns, prompting legal action from the Michigan Islamic Academy and support from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice also filed a lawsuit, alleging the township violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Both lawsuits were resolved in 2016 through a $1.7 million settlement and a consent judgment, which allowed the project to move forward.