Opponents Of Mormon Temple Site Organize Plan Called ‘Corporate Takeover’ Of Neighborhood

Some homeowners have organized against the proposed construction of a Mormon temple near the Billings Rimrocks. One opponent says the structure would constitute the “corporate takeover” of a neighborhood.

John Hanson’s home near the Rimrocks has become temporary headquarters for the group, with is fighting construction of the temple in front of the “Rims,” a west Billings area that provides a refuge from urban trappings.

The opponents have organized as the Billings Rims Preservation Society. Its newsletter includes computer-assisted pictures showing the Idaho Falls Mormon temple superimposed against the Rims.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns about 34 acres proposed as the temple site, and has asked the city to annex the property, opening the way for services such as sewer lines and police protection. The church has said it will fund all improvements.

The opponents’ newsletter includes a form that can be mailed to the City Council, urging denial of the annexation.

The church, through its spokesman, has said it will do all it can to meet the concerns of residents.

There have been other cities where temple construction was opposed, but people changed their minds after the building was in place, said spokesman Don LeFevre of Salt Lake City. He said that “in virtually all cases the neighbors love it.”

Hanson, Deborah Anspach and their twin sons live in a home they built in 1982 on the northeastern edge of the land owned by the Mormon Church.

Last week, Hanson and Anspach returned from a three-day driving tour of temples in Idaho and Utah. The trip “underscored our fear that this is not appropriate for the Rims location,” Hanson said.

Most of the temples were big, white or light-colored, topped with spires and brilliantly illuminated all night, he said.

Critics of the Billings site say concerns include increased traffic and loss of tax revenue, but Anspach and Hanson say that above all, they want to preserve “the integrity of the Rims.”

Richard Larsen, a former Billings mayor and chairman of the Temple Task Force, said the church is several weeks from selecting a local architect. Questions of size and design aren’t settled, he said, so there is little the church can do to answer questions raised by opponents.

Larsen objects to use of the Idaho Falls temple to show how a temple might look in Billings.

“I’m really disappointed that they’re making assumptions without waiting for information,” he said. Hanson said his visits to temples in Idaho and Utah indicate the pictures in the Rims Preservation Society newsletter are not exaggerations.

Church leaders say the Billings temple would serve nearly 60,000 Mormons in Montana, northern Wyoming and the Dakotas.

Hanson and other opponents are careful to confine their opposition to the choice of site, not to the Mormon Church or temples in general.

“Nobody has said, ‘We don’t want a temple in Billings,”’ Hanson said.