A New Jersey town will spend $2.75 million dollars to purchase land for a mosque.

The money is a settlement in a lawsuit filed by Muslims who were prohibited from opening a mosque in another part of the community.

The settlement between Bridgewater, New Jersey and the Al Falah Center will total $7.75 million because in addition to the city buying the land, they will pay $5 million in damages and attorney’s costs.

In 2011, a planning board rejected a proposal for a former inn to be turned into a mosque citing a new ordinance that only allowed houses of worship to be located along major roadways because of traffic concerns.

The Muslim group filed a suit in front of an Obama appointed federal judge, Michael Shipp, who barred the city from enforcing their ordinance and ordered them to reconsider the application.  The judge said that the community had “anti-Muslim prejudice.”

The city said they made the agreement to avoid using tax dollars to pay for legal costs.

“The preservation of our residential areas and the ability to zone uses appropriate for their locations is a critical right that the township fought to preserve,” Mayor Dan Hayes told reporters. “This settlement leaves our ordinance intact, ends our exposure to the almost unlimited costs of further litigation and allows all parties to move forward.”