Despite a blow last month in their bid for zoning to build a new mosque, a group of Muslims in DuPage County got a green-light today to finally bring their bid before the full county board. The County’s Development Committee voted 5-1 to approve both the plan by The Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America, or MECCA, to build a religious place of worship on the five-acre, unincorporated plot, as well as the construction of a dome and minaret.

MECCA leaders were baffled last month when some members of the Zoning Board of Appeals denied approval for the project on the grounds of “religious oversaturation” in that part of the county. But Mark Daniel, an attorney representing the group, said that argument didn’t come up with the Development Committee. “County board members that are on the committee really focused on the relevant issues of code compliance and is this a religious use that is going to cause harm that’s specific to the property, and they believed that it was not,” said Daniel.

The county board is expected to consider the proposal within the next two weeks.