Mormons rejoice over planned Newport Beach temple

NEWPORT BEACH -- The announcement came Friday.

All that’s left for members of the Newport Beach Stake of the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to do is obtain the right permits

from the city, announce a site, determine a groundbreaking date and form

committees to spread the word that the first Mormon temple in Orange

County will be built in the city.

In other words, they have a lot to do, said Robert Wynn, the city’s

former city manager and a member of the Newport Beach stake.

A site has been bought for the temple from the Irvine Co., but members

of the church are not authorized to discuss the building plans, site or

cost yet, said Joseph Bentley, a spokesman for the Orange County branch

of the church.

Bentley did acknowledge that the church owns six acres next to one of

its churches on Bonita Canyon Road in Newport Beach. Members are

speculating and hoping that this will be the site the church decides to

use.

Bentley said he hopes to publicly announce the site in the next two

weeks.

Bentley also said that until the church receives word from the

church’s main offices in Salt Lake City on how large and what exactly the

temple will look like, they cannot go to the city to get the necessary

permits.

He added, however, that he does not think that the process -- even

with last year’s passage of the slow-growth Greenlight measure -- will be

a problem.

“Any time you build something in the Newport Beach or Irvine areas,

it’s not known for being easy,” Bentley said. “Once we know what the

temple is going to look like, then we can put something together and go

before the Planning Commission. And I don’t think Greenlight will be a

problem because the sites we have thought about are public and

semipublic.”

Patricia Temple, the city’s planning director, agreed that Greenlight

will not be a problem, as there is no limit on how big the temple can be.

Bentley also said the Irvine Co. has told the church that they can

build a temple as large as the 60,000-square-foot temple in San Diego.

However, he said the temple they are considering is smaller than the

Bonita Canyon Road church, which is 30,000 square feet. The new temple is

expected to take one or two years to build.

Temples are considered to be “houses of the Lord,” where Christ’s

teachings are reaffirmed through marriage, baptism and other sacred

ordinances that unite families for eternity.

Wynn said the next step for members is to form a temple committee of

about five or six members to handle such details as obtaining the

necessary permits from the city. There also will be members assigned to

ensuring the community knows the temple is being built, he said.

“We will have an outreach program so neighbors will know that it is

our desire to come into the area and that it is a positive thing,” Wynn

said. “We will be there to answer questions. Any time you build something

in Newport Beach, there is concern for any growth or traffic. There are

always those that raise questions.”

The temple is part of three new temples to be built in California, and

the Newport Beach temple will serve 44,100 members in the region. Another

temple will be built near Sacramento, and the third one will be near

Redlands. The existing temples are in West Los Angeles, Oakland, San

Diego and Fresno.

Weatherford Clayton, leader of the Newport Beach stake, said the

Newport Beach temple continues a trend of building a new generation of

smaller facilities to accommodate the needs of the rapidly growing church

community.

Clayton added that before the Newport Beach dedication, the public

will be able to tour the facility.

For now, though, members of the Newport Beach stake say they are

thrilled that they will have a temple in their own backyard. They now

commute to West Los Angeles.

“One issue is that right now we drive such a long distance to go to

the temple. It’s almost a two-hour drive. So we are just delighted that

there is going to be one that is closer. Everyone is excited. We had

always hoped that there would be one in Orange County,” said Doug Owen,

bishop of the Corona del Mar ward.

Jill Money said that when she read the news in the paper Saturday

morning, she was ecstatic.

“We don’t get to go very often [to the temple], only maybe two times a

year,” Money said Sunday after church. “Now I can go quite a few times.

There is an organist I was telling my husband about . . . who said he was

going to go to temple 88 times in a year, one for every key on the organ.

Maybe I can go 88 times too.

“We’re just very excited. It’s something we have heard about for

years, that they would eventually build more temples. And in the last

year or two, they [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] have

been building more temples. And now, just think, there’s going to be one

here,” she added.

Benjamin Graff said he, like the rest of the Newport Beach stake,

feels blessed that a new temple will be built in Orange County.

“The temple is more than a meeting house, it provides families the

opportunity to prepare themselves for the eternity,” Graff said. “It is

truly a house of institution where those who are most worthy can go. Only

in the temple can families be sealed together. It is a great blessing for

the people here. Any community where there is a temple means that

community is blessed and enriched.”

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