Nauvoo has the hallmarks of any small town in rural Illinois – a consolidated school district, a Dollar General, a Casey’s General Store, and a tiny mid-century brick post office.
But the Hancock County community is anything but typical.
Stores like Eborn Books and Zion’s Mercantile line Mulholland Street, just before the road opens up to a majestic bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.
There sits a five-story, limestone Mormon temple that opened in 2002.
It’s a replica of the 19th century temple at that site and has deep historical and religious significance to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as does Nauvoo.
“It’s a place of discovery but for me it’s also a sacred place,” said Janet Hill, who moved from Utah two years ago and runs an art gallery on Mulholland Street. “I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the history of the persecution of the saints has a lot of lessons.”
Along with other historic sites, the temple makes Nauvoo a destination for members of the LDS church. Hill is among a growing number of Mormons from across the country who are not only visiting Nauvoo but making it home.
“I feel strongly that at this point in my life, that my role is to contribute to the community. Hopefully to help heal some of the longtime wounds that have historically stayed in Nauvoo,” Hill said.
A site plan
A proposed new visitor center has caused a bit of tension in the last six months in a community that is not only a religious center but a small town that – like most in the region – is dealing with a declining tax base and aging infrastructure.
The conflict is not because anyone in town is opposed to a new visitor center – but because of the proposed location.
In March, the LDS church submitted a site plan request to the city of Nauvoo to build a historic visitor center and parking lot at the northeast corner of Wells and Young streets, which is just down Wells from the temple.
The proposal was for a 24,000 square foot building and a parking lot with 120 spaces.
Hill said she immediately felt that was the wrong spot for it and launched a petition that garnered 120 signatures in 36 hours – not against the visitor center but against the proposed site.
“My whole desire has been to have the LDS church really examine why they feel it has to be there and if there possibly could be another spot,” Hill said.
Explaining the faith
Visitor centers help explain the Mormon faith to the public.
There is already an LDS visitor center in Nauvoo that was built in the 1970s. It’s down the hill from the temple in Nauvoo’s flats and is dedicated to the history of the church and significant sites.
The existing visitor center would stay open, according to Susan Sims, regional communications director for the LDS church, which is a volunteer position.
Sims said since the project was proposed, the name has changed from a historic visitor center to the Nauvoo Temple Visitor Center.
It’s meant to teach visitors specifically about the temple, which is only open to members of the LDS church in good standing.
That means anyone who happens upon the temple who isn’t a member in good standing is turned away.
“There was a real need for us to have an interpretive center, namely this visitor center, in close proximity to the temple. So that we could direct people. Well, you can go across the street, and here you can learn about this building. You can see a cutout about it, you can see exhibits about it, you can learn about our focus on Jesus Christ,” Sims said.
A busy intersection
The location is not only in close proximity to the temple, but also right across the street from Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
It’s also diagonal from the Catholic elementary school and not far from the LDS meeting house.
It’s on a street and intersection many residents feel is already congested and unsafe, and even more so during church services, weddings, and funerals.
The major concerns are pedestrian and vehicular safety and the integrity of the neighborhood, including noise and light pollution and how it would obstruct a breathtaking view of the Mississippi.
The original site plan was set to be denied by the city when it was withdrawn by the church.
Sims said the church satisfied safety concerns with a revised site plan.
“We will, at our expense, widen Wells Street,” Sims said. “That’s a benefit to the city at no cost to the city that will allow parking on both sides of the street and still allow two-way traffic which is currently not possible.”
Other changes in the church’s revised plan include moving access to the parking lot to a side street and working with the city to make Wells and Young a four-way stop.
The new visitor center is expected to draw 150,000 visitors a year, according to the church.
Tour buses and traffic
John McCarty is a lifelong Nauvoo resident. He attends the Catholic church and is a former mayor and city council member.
He said when the temple was built, city leaders were told bus traffic would be re-routed to lower areas and up the hill.
“But as we’ve seen forever, we have that sign right there that says bus route and those are totally ignored 90 percent of the time,” he said.
McCarty said Nauvoo’s roads were built for Model-As, not tour buses. Grain trucks also have to get through town in the rural community.
He believes putting the visitor center at Wells and Young streets would drive even more traffic to a side of town that wasn’t built for it.
“Looking at it, and then they said they had some of the numbers for how many people would use it, the red flags go up immediately from living here all these years. If you open one floodgate, it’s just going to take over,” McCarty said.
The former mayor also said the tourism dollars that come into Nauvoo because of the temple and other sites do not make up for what’s lost because so much property owned by the church is off the tax rolls.
It’s estimated 40 percent of property in Nauvoo is owned by the church or the non-profit organization set up to restore historic sites.
Residential zoning
Being a small city, Nauvoo also doesn’t have full-time community development and planning staff.
When the temple was being built in 2001, the city worked with a land use planning facilitator furnished by the church to set up zoning.
Karen Ihrig was on the Nauvoo city council at the time. She’s a retired English teacher who has lived in Nauvoo for 50 years.
After the visitor center site plan was withdrawn, Ihrig realized the parcel is zoned residential, and not commercial or for outdoor museums as originally thought.
“When it came out that this building is going to be built in this location, something in my head clicked. I don’t think they can build it there, because this is residential,” she said.
Ihrig said residential zoning is the most restrictive in Nauvoo and allows only for homes, churches, schools, and museums run by the city.
The zoning realization opened up more conversations and some differing ideas about the proposed visitor center.
“There were meetings about this,” Ihrig said. “Yes, it should be allowed, because it is some sort of ancillary building to the temple, and it shouldn’t be allowed because it’s not a church and there are not regular worship services in there.”
The original site plan in March described the visitor center as a “connecting link” between historic Nauvoo and the temple, to include a lobby, theater, classroom, and gallery.
The revised site plan submitted in July under residential zoning was more detailed about the religious importance of a visitor center and the church’s religious need for it.
The church’s Sims said Nauvoo’s residential zoning ordinance includes the language “other places of worship” – and the church does see it as a place of worship.
“This visitor center is a place of worship because the primary activities that will be engaged in that building are religious instruction and providing information about the beliefs of our faith and the purpose of the temple,” Sims said.
Religious land use
The revised site plan also said the church is on board with reasonable accommodations for the health and safety of the community.
But any plans to thwart or limit construction of what they called a “vital religious center” would trigger the church’s rights under a federal law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
The law both allows incarcerated people to worship freely -- and prohibits governments from unreasonably limiting religious assemblies or structures.
Hill – a Mormon – said she doesn’t think that applies to the situation in Nauvoo.
“I think it was a not well thought out clause to put in there, because it seemed like a bullying tactic,” she said. “Hopefully that’s not what it was intended to be.”
Legal representatives from the LDS church also say the federal law could allow the church to override zoning ordinances for maximum building height for a new temple in Utah.
In Nauvoo, Sims said the federal law would not necessarily be invoked if it was denied.
“But it should be clear to the city council that if they deny a site plan that meets both zoning laws and all other ordinances, it would be illegal for the city council to deny the site plan,” Sims said.
The LDS church was hosting an informational meeting in Nauvoo this week to share gospel perspectives on the proposed visitor center.
And another petition has been circulating in town – this one in favor of the proposed location.
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