Opponents of a mosque planned near Ground Zero may be getting some unexpected help from the City.

The building at 45 Park Place was constructed in 1857 in the Italian Renaissance style and was one of dozens in the Tribeca neighborhood proposed as landmarks in the 1980s.

It was damaged by debris in the September 11 attacks, and now an Islamic organization would like to tear it down to make room for a $100 million, 13-story mosque and cultural center just three blocks from the World Trade Center site.

The City Landmarks Preservation Commission will decide if the building is too historically and architecturally significant to raze.

Muslim leaders said the proposed Cordoba House is something that would bring some good in the aftermath of those horrific attacks. “A community and cultural center, which would bring a prayer space for Muslims and we hope for non-Muslims as well, to bring about a new discourse in the relationship between the United States, New York City and the Muslim world,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative.

However, there’s lots of political and social opposition.

Tea Party Express chairman Mark Williams has called it a monument to the 9-11 attackers, and some 9-11 families said they’re angry that the new structure would be built so close to where their relatives died in an attack by Islamic terrorists.

“As an American, I am so proud of our freedom of religion, but I also think we have to be sensitive, historically sensitive to what happened on that area,” said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother in the Islamic terror attacks.

(Source: WCBSTV)