Mesa Mormon temple's redevelopment plans raise historic-preservation concerns

Plans for redevelopment around Mesa's Temple Historic District, including the demolition of as many as eight homes owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have some historic preservationists concerned.

The church has filed to demolish nine properties in the Temple Historic District near Main and Lesueur streets, Mesa Planning Director John Wesley said. One of the properties is the church's family history center and the other eight are 1950s-era bungalow homes mostly on Udall Street.

The city denied three applications and six remain under review. The church must undergo a required six-month waiting period, but will be able to demolish any of the properties after that. Because the church owns the properties, the city must legally give the demolition permits after six months, Wesley said.

Linoff and others are concerned that the demolition permits for the houses did not go through the city's Historic Preservation Board and instead went to city staff. Linoff isn't on the board but is president of the separate, non-profit Mesa Preservation Foundation. The temple issue may be symptomatic of a larger battle over historic preservation in Mesa as plans for downtown development rev up.

Wesley said the church applied for the nine demolition permits on the basis that the properties are so dilapidated that they posed an immediate safety risk and need to be knocked down instead of taking it to the board first.

The temple will close for a planned two-year renovation in May, a church spokesman confirmed in an email.

The Mesa temple, near Main Street and Mesa Drive, opened in 1927 and is Arizona's oldest Mormon temple.

The church has held redevelopment plans for the area for decades, said Denny Barney, a Maricopa County supervisor who donated his time to help the church acquire some of the houses slated for demolition. "It’s been a long time, frankly, that they’ve been working on (redevelopment)," Barney said.

In 2011,The Arizona Republic reported that Barney and others were cleaning up the area around the temple for redevelopment in anticipation of the light rail's arrival. At that time, he made a $40,000 "no-strings-attached" donation to the city to overhaul its zoning code to make redevelopment easier.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2018/05/02/mesa-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints-temple-historic-district-redevelopment-raises-concerns/571361002/

Maybe a few of those old historical houses will catch on fire, like the old Provo tabernacle did.



"...a $40,000 "no-strings-attached" donation to the city to overhaul its zoning code to make redevelopment easier." This statement makes no sense.

That is not a description of a "no-strings-attached" donation. It has a purpose: for the city to overhaul its zoning code to make redevelopment easier.

I smell another mall. The LDS real estate holding company is morphing into the LDS real estate developing company faster than I anticipated.

Maybe Russ wants a chance, like Tommy, to cut a prophetic ribbon and prophetically yell, "Let's go shopping!"?

"The temple will close for a planned two-year renovation in May, a church spokesman confirmed in an email.

The Mesa temple, near Main Street and Mesa Drive, opened in 1927 and is Arizona's oldest Mormon temple."

We've seen the renovations before...sometimes after just 20yrs...BUT you would think that the one TRUE church would learn how t make the holiest-of-holies house honoring HF, to last the test of time, like how the Greeks and Romans built their monuments..

It was already renovated once in 1974-75, with a full public open house and rededication.


Groundbreaking: 25 April 1922 by Heber J. Grant
Open House: Tours offered during last 2 years of construction
Dedication: 23–26 October 1927 by Heber J. Grant
Public Open House: 19 March–3 April 1975
Rededication: 15–16 April 1975 by Spencer W. Kimball

The Mesa Arizona Temple was closed in February 1974, for extensive remodeling that equipped the Creation, Garden, and World Rooms for stationary motion-picture presentation of the endowment; the Terrestrial Room became a veil room. The decaying burlap murals were removed from the rooms, and the salvageable pieces were shipped to Church headquarters for preservation and storage. A new entrance and an additional 17,000 square feet were added, providing larger dressing rooms and increasing the number of sealing rooms.

In 1980, a fourth ordinance room was added by converting a space previously used by the female patrons. This allowed endowment sessions to begin every half hour.

In 1991, the preserved sections of the original murals were sent back to the Mesa Arizona Temple for reinstallation and restoration. Only one wall in each room could be restored. The new ordinance room added in 1980, which did not have a mural before, was decorated with sections from the original World Room mural.

https://ldschurchtemples.org/mesa/

That's a shame.

I'd prefer they preserve the homes as a part of its history. And families could still live in them.

Now we know why they have all those temples. The system is a perpetual revenue stream for Craig Zwick and the other construction CEOs on the Board of Governors (otherwise known and the GAs) of the Mormon church.

They will now never lack for a whole slew of temples to build, redevelop, renovate, and demolish to build again. They have finally succeeded in a never-ending income source.

And all of it tax-free.

Tell me again how this is supposed to be a spiritual organization?