Members of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Mt. Prospect thought they finally had found a home this winter. After months of services in a school gymnasium, the congregation had secured a building to lease. Members raised money for pews, carpeting and lights. They even picked a moving date.
Then Immanuel received word from village authorities that the church needed to install sprinklers, a cost that would nearly double the remodeling budget.
Now, the church’s plans are on hold, surprising and disappointing members of the Korean-American congregation.
Although municipalities might have cut churches some slack years ago, they now are increasing their scrutiny of them on traffic, noise and design issues. For some ethnic congregations, working the system has proved difficult.
Cultural and language differences can make it hard for them to navigate the zoning process, and some ethnic churches may not be aware of strict suburban requirements for design and land use. The fledgling status of such congregations also can mean they do not have the deep pockets or political savvy to meet all their critics’ demands.
Worshipers at Immanuel, for example, wished they had been more familiar with the building and zoning regulations so they could have anticipated the additional costs involved.
Some experts don’t discount bias as a partial explanation for the resistance of municipalities and residents to new ethnic congregations.
John Kim, chairman of Immanuel’s building committee, doesn’t think bias is at play in Mt. Prospect. But that doesn’t diminish the sting of the recent obstacles for the church.
“We understand City Hall has the rules and the codes for a reason,” Kim said. “But we were so disappointed. We keep praying that we will get this opportunity.”
Mision Juan Diego also is trying to make its way through a zoning process for the first time. After nearly three decades in Palatine, the rapidly growing Catholic Hispanic parish wants to remodel the Scandinavia Club building in Arlington Heights.
To try to allay neighbors’ concerns, the church in one of its first moves met with its prospective neighbors before the expansion project was submitted to village officials.
“This is a new process,” Rev. Moises Marin said. “But we know all our plans are in the city’s hands. We want to make them feel comfortable with the project.”
The church expects to submit design plans in February.
Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, who oversees the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church, has been one of the few area leaders to question publicly whether racial or ethnic bias fuels the resistance to some churches’ attempts to grow.
He suggested that such bias might be at work against Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, which is trying to relocate from Park Ridge to Long Grove.
Good Shepherd representatives have worked with the village since they bought the land in unincorporated Lake County more than a year ago. To ease concerns about design and land use, the Korean-American church removed a bell tower, scrapped a planned day-care center and added landscaping.
On Tuesday, Long Grove residents were out in force to oppose the project. They cited potential traffic problems and the prospect of activities at the church seven days a week. The church has about 180 members, but its highest projection of growth is for 1,500 in 10 years.
Good Shepherd leaders see the dispute as a model for how ethnic churches can work with planners, and they remain optimistic about being able to relocate to Long Grove. But Sprague is less sanguine. “I’ve been around for a long time. I have trouble understanding how a group can be treated like this group. It makes me wonder,” said Sprague, who has represented the church at public hearings for the project and whose conference includes 15 Korean-American churches.
But an attorney for the residents said the opposition is based solely on the scope of the project, which calls for a sprawling, six-building, 27-acre complex that residents consider out of character with bucolic Long Grove.
The village Plan Commission on Tuesday delayed voting on the project.
W. Cole Durham Jr., a Brigham Young University law professor and author of a study on minority religions and zoning disputes, said racial bias sometimes can play a part in such fights.
But Durham said a larger problem is that churches with ethnic congregations often lack political clout and influential members who can press municipal allies for help.
Immanuel Presbyterian Church has benefited from the movement of Korean-Americans from Chicago to the north and northwest suburbs, and its congregation has grown slowly to about 60 members. Immanuel budgeted more than $50,000 to add pews, carpeting and other improvements at its planned new Mt. Prospect home, and it agreed to sign a 20-year lease.
Then came Mt. Prospect’s requirement for costly new sprinklers, which the church says it cannot afford.
Village and church officials are trying to find a way for the church to phase in the improvements. No agreement has been reached, but both sides report progress. The village also might limit activities and hours until the church can fully comply.
Village Manager Michael Janonis said the village has pursued flexible arrangements with other churches in the past.
“We don’t want to thwart their efforts,” he said. “We want to work with them if we can.”
