Residents rally against LDS Temple design
Residents rally against LDS Temple design
- By PETER SEGALL psegall@bakersfield.com
- Oct 2, 2024
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This rendering of the proposed temple shows what the structure could look like viewed from Stockdale Highway looking west.
- Courtesy of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Greg Brott, left, and Greg Ketchum speak to a community meeting of Brighton Parks, a gated community in west Bakersfield where residents worry the steeple of a proposed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple will negatively impact their community.
- Peter Segall / The Californian
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A group of residents in west Bakersfield are pushing back against the design of a proposed temple from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that they say would be incongruent with the community.
A meeting was held Wednesday evening at the Brighton Parks clubhouse in West Bakersfield, where more than 50 residents gathered to hear an update on the effort to see the design of the temple change.
At issue for residents is not the temple itself, which they say they would welcome, but the “height and bright” they worry would come from a proposed 123-foot steeple at the center of the construction.
“We all believe the temple will be good for the community,” said Greg Ketchum, chair of an ad hoc committee formed by residents of Brighton Parks, a gated, 55-and-old community adjacent to the site of the proposed temple.
“It’s the tower that we object to,” he said.
The church is currently seeking a zone modification for the site at the intersection of Jewetta Avenue and Stockdale Highway, which is currently zoned for commercial use and allows a maximum height of 60 feet.
The requests have been paused while the church provides additional information about environmental impacts, according to Bakersfield Planning Director Paul Johnson.
A decision whether to grant the modification to allow for the full height of the steeple will go before the Bakersfield Planning Commission in the future, Johnson said, but the proposal hasn’t been put on the commission’s schedule.
An decision by the Planning Commission can be appealed by either the applicant or a third party, Johnson said, at which point the matter goes before the City Council.
Residents turned out en masse to a public hearing in February and a following meeting on the proposal was canceled at the request of the church.
An open house event with residents was held by the church in July but proposals for the steeple remained unchanged.
Residents maintain that they are not opposed to the LDS or the construction of the temple, but that they simply want the structure to follow the current zoning regulations.
“If they had come in with the 60-feet height limit, they would have broke ground years ago,” said Greg Brott, a member of the ad hoc committee. “All we’re saying is, ‘Please be within the code and you can start building tomorrow.'”
But the church maintains that the steeple is an important feature of the temple, which are special locations used for specific religious observances.
“The (LDS) population continues to expand in California. Right now the closest temples are Fresno and Los Angeles,” said Merrill Dibble, stake president for the LDS church of Bakersfield. “The temple would be a great blessing to many of us that live here.”
Dibble said the church was intending to seek approval for the temple as designed, but will ultimately follow what the city allows.
“It’s ultimately up to the city to decide and we’ll follow their guidance,” Dibble said.
Exemptions to local code are allowed under a federal law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, or RLUIPA, which says variances to local zoning code must be made for religious buildings.
Johnson said Bakersfield has issued RLUIPA exemptions to other religious buildings in the city in the past.
On Wednesday, residents were shown a presentation about the proposal for the temple and told about other communities around the country that have had similar issues with the church.
Bakersfield is not the first community to have this conflict with the LDS proposals for temples. In some cases the matter has gone to litigation and in some cases, cities have been able to make design changes, and in others the church has prevailed.
The Brighton Parks committee has retained Kristin Hagan of Hagan Law Group, LLP as legal counsel and hired Tracy Leach of public relations firm Providence Strategic Consulting, Inc, to manage communications.
Leach said the next steps for the committee were to raise funds so the group could be ready to make a protest when the temple proposal goes back before the city.
This article has been updated to clarify the type of meeting held in February.
More information
LDS Temple renderings
Renders show what the proposed LDS Temple could look like from different locations.
- Latter-day Saints church pauses temple project to mollify neighbors
- Latter-day Saints community in Bakersfield to build its first temple on Stockdale Highway
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