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LDS Church, Wasatch County looking to balance new temple lighting with dark sky goals

A large empty field is the site of the announced Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Heber on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. In the foreground is a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse.
Trent Nelson
/
The Salt Lake Tribune
A large empty field is the site of the announced Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Heber on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. In the foreground is a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse.

Even a “House of the Lord” needs to go through a planning commission.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants its planned Heber Valley Temple to glow like the faith’s other temples around the world, but Wasatch County will have to take a shine to the plan and change its dark-sky-friendly outdoor lighting regulations for it to happen.

In November, as KPCW first reported, an architecture firm submitted an application on the church’s behalf to change the lighting rules, saying the proposal would allow the “appropriate and subtle highlighting of buildings” while preserving the county’s night skies.

Wasatch County appears ready to make a change, but not one that will lead to more light pollution.

“The general consensus that I have from the council is that, while we are open to amending our code,” County Manager Dustin Grabau said in an interview, “their highest priority is preserving dark-sky standards, and our existing code is not industry standard for dark-sky protections. I think anything that they do adopt would be compliant with dark-sky standards.”

Read full report here.