Temple plans filed

BONITA CANYON -- Newport Beach staff members received their first peek

Tuesday at plans for the county’s first Mormon temple, a

17,500-square-foot house of worship slated to be built at the

intersection of Bonita Canyon Drive and Prairie Road.

And the angel Moroni, whose statue form trumpets from the top of the

temple’s 91-foot-steeple, could herald the first signs of debate. Height

limits for buildings in the Bonita Canyon area mean city planners will

have to consider granting discretionary approval for the slender steeple.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which in April

announced it would build the temple in Newport Beach, took its next major

step Tuesday by filing plans and permit applications with the city.

The church plans to hold meetings with homeowner groups and

individuals whose views will include the new temple. Hoping to charm

neighbors and honor God at the same time, the church plans to include 5

1/2 acres of public gardens with walkways and reflecting pools -- all

surrounding the 35-foot-tall, light-colored granite building.

“We’d like it to be one of the most beautiful experiences a person can

have to go in the building or be around the building,” church spokesman

Joseph Bentley said.

The cost of the project was not disclosed.

The church has owned the 8 1/2-acre site at 2150 Bonita Canyon Drive

since 1992, when it also acquired the land for the 28,500-square-foot

stake center, its worship place now adjacent to the site.

The temple, though, will serve a different purpose integral to the

Mormon faith. Baptisms, marriages and ceremonies to bind parents and

families together for eternity all must be performed in temples.

Now church members must drive to Los Angeles or San Diego for these

ordinances. Mormons literally consider temples to be the house of God.

Steeples, too, have special religious significance, drawing attention

upward toward God.

The steeple may be the only element of the plans to make any waves.

Church planners have gone to great lengths to make the temple amenable

to the Newport Beach community. It will be about a tenth of the size of

the church’s famous Los Angeles temple and a fifth of the size of another

in San Diego. The temple won’t trigger a Greenlight vote, having been

approved before the slow-growth measure’s passage.

It will serve 44,100 members in the region. But church officials

emphasize that it will not hold more than 150 people at any one time,

which they say will eliminate any potential parking or traffic problems.

“The temple will be subject to the same considerations of any other

structure for that area,” City Manager Homer Bludau said.

Planning department staff will review the plans before sending them to

the Planning Commission, probably within eight weeks. The temple is

estimated to be completed in spring 2003.