Mormon church will lower height of Phoenix temple

PHOENIX — The height of the proposed Mormon temple in Phoenix will not exceed residential zoning heights, church officials said Tuesday, Jan 26.

Len Greer, a spokesperson for the church in the Greater Phoenix

Area, said the church will lower and redesign the height of the temple.

The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints officials had proposed building a temple, at 51st

Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road, that would be 40 feet high, 10 feet

higher than the land's current zoning, which is 30 feet. The temple

would still have a 78-foot-high steeple and spire.

When the church revealed its plans last summer to build the Phoenix temple, neighbors were upset. The anger came to a boiling point on Dec. 3, when the Phoenix city counsel unanimously approved the zoning variance. Opponents vowed to get the needed 16,000 signatures on a petition to put the matter to vote. They got their number by Jan. 2.