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By Kent Larsen
Church Plans Missionary Housing Complex, Parking Garage for Nauvoo
NAUVOO, ILLINOIS -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints won
approval for a #3.8 million housing complex and a $2 million parking garage
Tuesday, July 10th from the Nauvoo city council in one of its first actions
under a new planning and zoning code. The 60-unit complex will serve as
housing for missionaries working at the Church's historic sites in Nauvoo
while the 200-space parking facility will accommodate visitor parking for
the new Nauvoo Temple and the historic sites.
The approvals came despite struggles to understand and deal with ambiguous
maps under the city's new code, adopted after the LDS Church announced the
Nauvoo Temple in 1999 and a Utah firm subsequently announced plans to build
24 two-story, two-bedroom units at 350 S. Fulmer St. The city, which has a
population of just 1,200, then (in March 1999) imposed a moratorium on new
building permits until the new code could be written. Nauvoo previously had
no zoning law.
The new housing complex will include 24 buildings and be constructed in the
city's outdoor museum district, west of Illinois 96. The 60 units will be a
mix of single-family, duplex and multi-family units in one or two-story
buildings that are consistent with the architecture already in the city's
historic "flats" area. That district includes the historic buildings owned
by the LDS Church and the Community of Christ (the former RLDS Church) that
date from the 1840s or are restored versions of 1840s-era buildings.
The parking garage will be located across the street from the new Temple on
the corner of Illinois 96 and Bluff Street, will include restrooms and will
have a brick facade that also fits the area's architectural character. It
will help alleviate parking for the 250,000 visitors to the Nauvoo historic
district, 80% of whom are LDS Church members.
The process of approving the new structures demonstrated, meanwhile, that
Nauvoo is still adjusting to its new code. Officials had to resolve disputes
over how to interpret the recent zoning map and what the permit fees should
be under the code. The council ruled that the boundary specified in the map
allowed the Church to construct the garage, but also decided that the permit
fees were hundreds of dollars more than under the previous code. The Church
then agreed to pay $6,000 for the garage permit and $11,400 for the housing
complex permit.
Source:
Nauvoo OKs parking garage permit
Deseret News 15Jul01 D1
By Stephen A. Martin: Deseret News correspondent
Mormon building permits OK'd
Burlington IA Hawk Eye 11Jul01 D1
By Stephen A. Martin: The Hawk Eye
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