Groundbreaking For Phoenix LDS Temple Proceeds After Agreement Reached With Phoenix Property Rights Coalition

Good news! The long political battle between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a property rights group in north Phoenix has come to an end, and construction on the long-awaited Phoenix Temple will begin. On Saturday June 4th, 2011, the LDS Church held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the proposed temple. Officially representing the LDS Church were Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy, Elders William R. Walker, Michael D. Pickerd and Jim L. Wright of the church's Quorums of the Seventy, and Ann M. Dibb, second counselor in the Young Women general presidency. Sister Dibb is also a daughter of President Thomas S. Monson. Local civic leaders attending included Ken Bennett, Arizona's secretary of state; Steve Court, state majority leader; and Thelda Williams, Phoenix vice mayor.

After a Phoenix zoning appeal board unanimously determined on May 12th that the Church planned enough parking spaces for the proposed temple, the property rights group briefly considered appealing the case to the Superior Court. But cooler heads prevailed, and the two sides went back to the table. The problems were finally resolved via a Memorandum of Understanding which resulted from a May 23rd meeting between LDS Church representatives and the Phoenix Property Rights Coalition. For two years, the Coalition aired consistent concerns about parking, traffic, lighting, building size and tower height. It seemed like every time one concern was resolved, another difficulty would surface. Thus even though Coalition representatives repeatedly stated they had no axe to grind against the LDS Church in principle, some people understandably began to become skeptical of their motives. One local anti-Mormon group, Concerned Christians, tried to exploit the dispute by distributing anti-Mormon DVDs in the Phoenix Metro Area, including over by the site of the proposed Gilbert Temple.

The history of the dispute between the LDS Church and the Phoenix Property Rights Coalition is more specifically discussed in this series of posts, to include applicable media links. A shorter summary of the dispute authored by the Church is also available HERE.

Some of the highlights of the agreement:

-- Create a steering committee to revisit traffic, parking and other issues. This will include placing a traffic light at Pinnacle Peak Road and 51st Avenue, as well as widening Pinnacle Peak Road as soon as possible. This was a major concern of the Coalition.

-- Limit the temple's open-house period to 30 days, not including the dedication services, and using a reservation/ticket system for the open house and dedication.

-- Turn off all lights projecting above the 30-foot roofline at 10:15 p.m., with parking lot lights to remain on to aid late-night temple patrons.

-- Reduce the temple spire's height an additional foot (now 10 feet lower than the original design) with the spire narrower and less bulky than the original design.

Both sides expressed appreciation for the efforts made by the other to reach resolution regarding this project. Both sides also acknowledge the desire to repair any damage done from the prior dispute and work towards building a friendly, communicative, and cooperative relationship.

The temple, expected to be completed in two years, will be the fifth in the state of Arizona. Three currently operating temples are located in Mesa, Snowflake and the Gila Valley, with a fourth under construction in Gilbert, in the southeastern section of the metro valley. With over 400,000 LDS members in Arizona, the need for this temple has been well-established.

In the final analysis, only the residents of the affected neighborhood are best qualified to judge the validity of their complaints. What's important now is that the issue is resolved, local residents seem to be satisfied, and construction can proceed.

Phoenix LDS Temple Drama Goes On And On And On...And The Issue Is Still Parking; Protests Now Have An Anti-Mormon Character

Note: All previous posts on the Phoenix Temple available HERE, with the most recent post displaying first.

This is becoming a veritable soap opera. The campaign against the new Phoenix Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to be endless...and the sticky wicket is parking. The dispute is over the number of parking spaces; the city decided the Church's allocation of 269 spaces was sufficient, but the Phoenix Property Rights Coalition claims there should be 556 spaces. It revolves around the definition of the temple's 114-seat worker preparation room.

Here are the Church's numbers:

-- 269 spaces
-- Worker preparation room defined as public assembly space
-- Public assembly space requires one parking space required for every 60 square feet of public assembly

The Coalition's claims:

-- 556 spaces
-- Worker preparation room defined as a worship area
-- Worship area requires one parking space for every three seats in the worker preparation room

So the real problem revolves around the definition of the worker preparation room. The Coalition apparently doesn't fully understand the purpose of the preparation room. They're thinking it's like a normal chapel, where 300 people all show up at once to worship.

Not so. There won't have 300 people all showing up at once to worship. Instead, there'll be people constantly filtering in and out during a designated time block. Most temples have two-hour time blocks set aside, but not everyone is required to show up at exactly the same time during those time blocks. Some temple ordinances, such as baptism, take less time than the endowment ceremony.

Consequently, the planned number of 269 spaces is adequate, and the city has already validated the Church's proposal. Because an LDS temple is unlike any other religious edifice, the city used a combination of worship, public assembly and office space standards to arrive at the 269 figure.

While the spokesman for the Phoenix Property Rights Coalition, Scott Anderson, previously claimed that his group wasn't anti-Mormon, this appears to be changing. During a late January protest featuring about 70 people picketing the proposed site, the group placed a 27-foot-tall inflatable gorilla with a message: "Utah: The 800lb Gorilla in our Neighborhood." They have been calling the project the "Temple of ill will". The Coalition's latest newsletter shows their true aims: to delay construction of the temple until the church decides to give up and leave the area. Scott Anderson said the protests will continue.

"We are going to keep protesting," Anderson said. "Even if they go forward with building the temple, we will protest the groundbreaking, dedication ceremonies and any and every event that comes. We have neighbors who want to chain themselves to the bulldozer. We will ensure that the temple remains a sore spot with them and an example of what happens when they do not respect the concerns of the surrounding neighborhood."

Chaining themselves to a bulldozer? Do they have Rachel Corrie fantasies? Now they're talking like a bunch of SDS wankers from the '60s. This proves they're anti-Mormon. But I waited until they produced the smoking gun before I made the call. The Coalition kept dredging up newer and more imaginative excuses to oppose the temple. Now, because of the latest Coalition newsletter, they're out of the closet. Some of the locals are wising up to the Coalition's true objectives:

soakblue Feb-10 @ 11:35 AM
Scott, the Mesa Temple has four ordinance rooms; the Phoenix temple will only have two. I count 345 spaces at the Mesa Temple. These spaces also serve the visitors' center and the genealogy library across the street. From this back-of-the-envelope analysis, 269 seems like plenty.

Incidentally, wouldn't you prefer the grounds were used for more garden/vegetation and less parking lot?


A13 Feb-10 @ 11:58 AM
Scott, If you think my comments supported your point, than we seem to have miscommunicated. You know, lots of people live near our local grocery store. They don't all show up at the same time, so the grocery store doesn't need to provide a space for every single person that could shop there. Temple services are staggered throughout the day, and even if you got hundreds showing up total in the day they would not be showing up or leaving at the same time. My point was and is this is not going to be the traffic nightmare you are forecasting.


NorthbyNorthwest Feb-10 @ 12:23 PM
I am not Mormon and I don't care what they do in there temple. If they want a big temple why not? The houses in the Stetson Valley/Hills area are big and destroyed a huge swath of natural desert and no one is complaining about how big and potentially a waste of space they are. Let people do what they want with their own private land let them build big houses or big temples, who cares.

The Proposed Phoenix LDS Temple: First, They Didn't Like The Spire, Then They Didn't Like The Lighting...Now They're Complaining About The Parking

Note: All posts on the Phoenix Temple available HERE, with the most recent post displaying first.

Although neighborhood residents who oppose the placement of the proposed Phoenix Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in their neck of the woods repeatedly claim they have no axe to grind against the Church, one must begin to wonder if that's really true, since there seems to be no end to the objections they dream up.

First, they didn't like the height of the temple and its spire. So the Church lowered the base height of the building from 40 feet to 30 feet. Then, they objected to the lighting, so the Church said they would impose limits upon the length of time the temple would be illuminated each day.

Now, opponents of the temple are complaining about parking -- specifically, whether or not the number of parking spaces effectively matches expected usage of the temple. The Arizona Republic describes the critical attributes of this new dispute reasonably well:

-- A local city ordinance that regulates parking for places of worship and public assembly requires one parking space per three seats.
-- The Church proposes 394 parking spaces based on the size of the temple's largest room, which is projected to be used the most
-- Neighborhood organizer Scott Anderson says the numbers don't add up. Anderson claims he counted 133 rooms in the temple rendering, while the city calculated parking using only 25 rooms.

Anderson also claims that when the Church redesigned the temple to lower the overall height, they doubled the size of the temple. But Anderson provides no evidence to support this contention; the redesign may have just traded vertical space for horizontal space.

So the parking dispute effectively centers around the city's interpretation of the number of applicable rooms and whether or not the redesign actually increased the overall square footage of the temple.

Meanwhile, Phoenix Temple spokeswoman Jennifer Wheeler claims that parking exceeds that which is required by city code. She notes that architects and engineers are still finalizing the plans for the temple, and that the plans will be submitted for vetting as part of the permitting process. Read the LDS Church's information page about the Phoenix Temple HERE.

In the comments section, Scott Anderson continues to insist that he is not driven by any anti-Mormon bias. In response to someone identified as "Maximum", Scott writes (after the jump):

Phoenix City Council Unanimously Approves Proposed LDS Phoenix Temple; Opponents Mull Petition Campaign To Stop It Via Initiative

Note: All posts on the Phoenix Temple available HERE, with the most recent post displaying first.

On Wednesday December 2nd, 2009, the Phoenix City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to allow the LDS church to add 10 feet of height to its proposed temple, to be built at 5104 W. Pinnacle Peak Road, near the corner of 51st Avenue and Pinnacle Peak, adjacent to the LDS chapel in the area. The building will stand 40 feet high, despite typical residential zoning laws preventing buildings from exceeding 30 feet in height. This means construction can start, possibly within 18 months from now. Primary media stories from KNXV Channel 15, KPHO Channel 5 with video HERE, and the Arizona Republic; additional story published by the Mormon Times. See my previous post for more background.

There has been some confusion regarding the height issue. This Arizona Republic graphic best illustrates the issue. The building itself will top out at 40 feet, which was the primary issue of contention. The additional steeple and spire above the base height raises the total height of the structure to 126 feet. Some local residents also complained about the height of the steeple and spire, but that is a separate issue that was not under official consideration at the council meeting.

To accommodate the overflow crowd of an estimated 1,000 people at the meeting, the city council shifted the meeting to the Orpheum Theater. Despite concerns raised about the height of the steeple, a city planning official told the audience that the federal Religious Freedom Act permits churches to be built in any type of zoning and does not restrict the height. But members of the Little Deer Valley Homeowners group also raised concerns that the temple would overtake the neighborhood and worried that a nearby two-lane road couldn't accommodate visitors. Some opponents are also concerned about the lighting of the temple, although many crime experts assert that lighting in a neighborhood can discourage opportunistic crime.

Some local residents are not reconciled to the city council's decision. Scott Anderson, who spoke out on behalf of neighborhood resident after the vote, said, "Being legally allowed to do something doesn't mean you're being respectful to the neighborhood." [Ed. Note: That argument has limits; for example, being legally allowed to terminate unborn human life through elective abortion doesn't mean you're respectful to human life, either. At a certain point, we have an obligation to be tolerant of legality even if we consider it "disrespectful".]

Anderson also said a group of neighbors will not give up their fight to get the issue to voters, proposing a petition campaign for an initiative. According to city leaders, a group must gather 9,798 legitimate petition signatures from registered Phoenix voters within thirty days in order to push the issue towards the ballot. Opponents also continue to stress that their opposition is to the building rather than the LDS Church. "We respect their right to worship, this isn't about religion," said Anderson. "What it's about is a building that's incompatible with the neighborhood." This has been verified by Mormons and non-Mormons alike. In addition, opponents are also reaching out to the adjacent community of Glendale for support, since the Glendale Arrowhead Community have also expressed concerns over additional traffic on 59th Avenue.

Meanwhile, the LDS Church and supporters of the proposed temple are anxious to move forward with their plans and intend to make every effort to make peace with the neighbors, according to Paul Gilbert, an attorney representing the temple supporters. Gilbert said the church has already made several concessions regarding the proposed addition, including agreeing to turn the lights off at 10 p.m. and changing the color of the exterior paint they had intended. The LDS Church provides further information about the project on their website.

An Estimated 30 Deer Valley Residents Picket Proposed Site Of New LDS Temple In Phoenix, Arizona; Religion Not The Issue

Note: All posts on the Phoenix Temple available HERE, with the most recent post displaying first.

KNXV Channel 15 reports that on Sunday November 22nd, 2009, at least 30 residents of the Deer Valley area of northern Phoenix, Arizona picketed the proposed site of the new temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church proposes to build a new, nearly 10,000 square-foot temple on a five-acre lot adjacent to their current chapel at 51st Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Parkway.

Local residents state that religion is not the issue. Scott Anderson, a spokesperson for the Little Deer Valley Homeowners Association, said "We respect their right to worship, this isn't about religion. What it's about is a building that's incompatible with the neighborhood". According to the local residents, traffic and aesthetics are the incompatibilities.

Traffic is the primary concern. The locals believe that embedding a high intensity, large project in a neighborhood of low intensity homes will breach the carrying capacity of the traffic network. They question whether the roads can handle the increased traffic, and may be concerned about the impact upon kids playing in the area. However, on their website, the LDS Church has stated that the fears about traffic are overblown. Unlike the older and more established temple in Mesa, this temple is not designed to accommodate a large number of patrons. Traffic flow is expected to be nominal, and ample parking is available on site (140 spaces) and at the adjoining chapel (176 spaces). No visitors' center, pageant, or other large-crowd event will occur on the temple grounds. And during the opening ceremonies, the Church will minimize the impact of traffic to guarantee neighbors easy access to their homes and businesses, although the Church omitted mention of the customary open house prior to dedication, in which public tours are conducted daily for a period of a month. The open house will also generate a temporary upsurge of traffic.

But opponents say the traffic study upon which the LDS Church assessment is based is flawed. Although the Church's traffic study found that the two-lane road can handle the temple's weekly and weekend traffic, one resident claimed the traffic study does not cover the 30-day visitor period (open house). But this is because the open house is only a one-time event before the temple is dedicated, so it shouldn't be a lasting issue.

The aesthetical concerns are the lighting, the steeple, and obstruction of the view of nearby mountains. The local residents are unhappy at the prospect of the steeple being lit until 11:00 P.M., although the lighting will serve to deter opportunistic crime in the neighborhood. They also believe the 126-foot steeple may obstruct their view of the mountains. In response, the LDS Church has stated that the lighting system will consist of a sophisticated system of directed lighting—specifically designed to minimize light pollution and to preserve dark skies as much as possible. As for the mountain views, the Church has stated that the visual impact of the temple on mountain views will be minimized by generous setbacks, an earth-toned exterior, world-class landscaping (open for public enjoyment), and a tiered design that tapers to a thin central spire.

People should know by now that when they move into a neighborhood, there can be no absolute guarantee that all the aspects making it attractive in the first place can be preserved for eternity. Life is about change.

These people don't seem to be cranks; there's no overt evidence of any anti-Mormon activists manipulating them behind the scenes at this time. They've hired zoning-and-land-use attorney Stephen Anderson to represent them, and they've launched a fundraising campaign to pay for his services. Nevertheless, both the Phoenix Planning Commission and the Deer Valley Village Planning Committee have already recommended approval, and the only remaining hurdle for the LDS Church is the Phoenix City Council, which is scheduled to consider the issue at 5 P.M on December 2nd at the Orpheum Theatre located at 203 W. Adams St.

One LDS member attended the Phoenix Planning Commission meeting; here are some of the person's impressions:

As an LDS member who lives within minutes of where this new temple would be built, the construction of the temple is no small thing for my part either. With small children, it means an easier time worshiping, and less hassle and expense in babysitting so my wife and I can drive to Mesa. It means more freedom to practice my religion, and more peace in my life.

{snip}

I was touched that the members of the opposition side made such a distinct effort to point out that they were in no way opposed to the LDS faith or the members of the LDS community. They simply were opposed to the construction and physical aspect, location, size and lighting of the building itself. I don’t know if they realize it, but their willingness to separate the religious side from this debate was a very, very kind gesture.

My fear, in seeing the emotion tied to this debate, is that these fine citizens, and this fine community of people, will forever have a negative impression of the LDS church and its members. While the debate was civil, or even calm for a room full of people this big, the tension was thick. As it appears the temple re-zoning and construction will be completed as expected and desired, feelings may be hurt, and people may be disappointed.

An unscientific poll being conducted by Azcentral.com shows that out of 855 respondents as of this post, 67 percent favor the temple and 33 percent are opposed.

Perhaps the local residents might want to consider what could happen if the LDS Church does not build their temple there. They could get a Wal-Mart, a Target, a skate park teeming with yelling, cursing teenagers clattering skateboards at all hours...or they could get a halfway house for recovering dopers or child molestors. In other words, they could end up with much more risky neighbors than the LDS Church. I wish them well in resolving this issue.