At last week’s Wasatch County Council meeting, planners for the LDS Church discussed a few major points of their application to build the Heber Valley Temple. They did not seek any final decisions and planned to meet with the council again next week.
The proposed development agreement calls for one steeple that’s 210 feet tall, and another that would be 141 feet, with the main body of the building no taller than 100 feet.
Loyal Hulme, a real estate lawyer representing the church, said the church plans to meet all requirements in the dark sky ordinance the county recently updated, which was a result of the church’s request.
Hulme also said at some stage of the process, the church could rely on a federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.
“It has a provision that basically says if the structure or the purpose of the religious use is significant to that group, then counties or cities or institutions can't discriminate against those uses,” Hulme said. “They can't say, for example, ‘Well, we don't think that spire’s important to you, you have to just eliminate it, we don't think that building is important to you, you have to build it 20 feet. We only have 20-feet buildings across this county, so we're only letting you go 20 feet.' If there's a religious purpose behind the structural element, then the county or the city is required to comply with that religious purpose.”
According to the Justice Department’s description, the act prevents local zoning laws from treating religious institutions with different terms than how they govern non-religious institutions. It’s also meant to prohibit laws that “unreasonably limit religious assemblies, institutions, or structures within a jurisdiction.”
Councilmember Steve Farrell said that could undermine some of the county’s authority to enforce its zoning laws.
Wasatch County Deputy Attorney Jon Woodard told KPCW it’s too early to say whether the federal law could come into play, or whether it would necessarily override local law as Hulme argued.
The proposed temple location is just outside the eastern boundary of Heber City at 1400 East Center Street. That’s in Wasatch County’s Residential Agriculture-1 (RA-1) zone, where a religious structure is included as an approved permitted use.
In a recent interview with KPCW, Wasatch County Planning Director Doug Smith said the project will need a conditional use permit because the temple designs are too tall for existing code. That process requires a public hearing, which has not been scheduled.
Some have spoken out against the proposed height. Red Ledges Community Association General Manager John Johnson sent a letter to Smith saying many residents are concerned about the temple blocking their views of the Heber Valley.
The church only mentioned the federal law as a possibility and may never invoke it. As Woodard pointed out, the council may still find the church’s proposals in the development agreement are in the best interests of the county and vote to confirm them with no conflict.
If the county shoots down church proposals such as the temple’s height, the legal challenges would come much later.
The county hasn’t even begun the formal process for approval yet. That includes detailed review by the development review committee, then public hearings at meetings with the planning commission and council. The council has the power to confirm the updated development agreement after the review committee and planning commission make recommendations.
The council resolved to discuss next steps again in its meeting Wednesday, June 21. That’s scheduled as another planning discussion where no final decisions will be made.
A link to view last week’s meeting in full is available on the county website.
