GUILDERLAND — A speciality shop is seeking permission to open its doors at 1648 Western Avenue. 

Called Guilderland Live Poultry and Grocery in its application to the town, the market would offer “meat from live poultry” as well as “condiments and spices and related requirements for food preparation,” according to Savita Hanspal, who was speaking to the Guilderland Planning Board at its Jan. 10 meeting on behalf of project owner, Imran Hassan.

 “Guilderland is a very good area,” Hassan told The Enterprise on Tuesday. “There’s so many good people living there, and so many from our community living there,” he said of the Muslim community.

Neither Hassan nor his three listed partners in the project responded to an Enterprise request for an interview. 

The shop will also include, among other things, “space for keeping live animals in a cage, slaughter room, cleaning room, restroom, and waiting room for customers,” according to documents filed with the town. 

The property, formerly a computer repair shop whose immediate neighbors are an Indian restaurant and Jewish cemetery, was before the planning board for a site plan review; the zoning board is the lead agency for the project, which is seeking a change in tenancy from general office to local retail. 

Town Planner Ken Kovalchik said during the meeting that the market would be “specializing in Halal foods.”

Halal in this instance refers to food prepared and slaughtered in accordance with Islamic dietary laws, which only allows certain animals to be eaten — the word “Halal” is Arabic for “permissible” or “lawful” — such as cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, and rabbits. Pork and carnivorous animals — like lions, tigers, and wolves — are prohibited.

The preparation of halal meat involves specific steps, including: 

— “When slaughtering the animal, we just say one word,” Hassan told The Enterprise. That word is Allah, meaning God;

— The animal is to be treated humanely, and killed as quickly and painlessly as possible; 

— The method used to slaughter the animal, known as dhabiha, is to make a quick and deep incision to the jugular vein, carotid artery, and windpipe; and 

— The animal cannot be dead prior to slaughtering.

Hanspal told the board that all live poultry would be kept inside of the building, because “it is not possible to keep them [outside] in these extreme weather conditions.”

Chairman Stephen Feeney said the project had recently been before the board, and that the discussion had really focused on parking.  There are only six or seven spaces, he said, and there might be some paved area behind the building.

As a retail use, the market would be required to have four parking spaces per 1,000 square feet. At roughly 5,000 square feet, that would be about 20 spaces. 

Feeney said, “Now that we have a new applicant with a specific use, I think we still need to talk about parking.”

The project, under a previous applicant, had been before the board for a site plan review, but the latest site plan hadn’t been updated to reflect board concerns with the initial proposal.

“I mean, our issues aren’t with you as the applicant,” Feeney said to Hanspal. “When we met with the previous owner, we had this conversation already: That you need to show us an updated site plan that actually draws the number of parking spaces on the plan, shows any exterior storage, or dumpster.”

Hanspal said, “We were promised by the owner for leasing purposes that he is going to be developing the parking spaces. And he said there’s going to be around 20 to 25 parking spaces.”

The owner of 1648 Western Avenue is listed in town and county records as Sixteen Hundred Forty-Eight. 

Feeney said it was his understanding that the shop would have to receive a special license from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a 5A license, which is a slaughterhouse license required for animals “to be slaughtered under United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection to be distributed for sale or further processing,” according to the state. 

Hanspal responded, “I have no idea about what kind of license the owner has; we are applying for the retail store. So we are yet to enter into a formal agreement that is approved by the attorneys. So we expect that all that will be sorted out by the attorneys of the two parties.”

To which Feeney responded, “In terms of the halal market itself, I believe the New York State Department of Ag and Markets overseas [it, and] you have to go through a certification process or registration with them. Ag and Markets has to license the facility, inspect it.”

Hassan

Hassan was asked about the concerns raised by Westmere resident Craig Bousquet in his Enterprise letter to the editor: What’s done with the remains of the slaughtered animals? Is there a plan for safe disposal? And what about keeping rodents away?

His response to each question was similar in nature: He’d spoken with the building landlord about the particular issue, who in turn would address the issue, and whose plan would be shared with The Enterprise when complete. 

As for the business itself, Hassan was asked if there was enough of a local market to support a Halal shop in Guilderland. 

“Well, when you start a business, you never know what is going to come to you,” he said. “I mean, if I keep it nice, clean, [and] I give good customer service … why not?”

He continued, talking about the many Muslims living in Guilderland, and said, “So I’m trying. Let’s see how it [goes].”

One estimate, from the U.S. Religious Census, puts Albany County’s Muslim population at about 2 percent of its approximately 315,000 inhabitants. With roughly the same percentage living in neighboring Schenectady County, population: 160,000. And making up a half-percent of Saratoga County’s 239,000 residents.