CODY, Wyo. - Cody’s controversial Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple project was approved on Tuesday after four planning and zoning meetings to consider the project.
Hundreds of people attended each meeting from the middle of June until Aug. 8 and dozens of people spoke out for and against the construction of the temple with a one-hundred-foot tall lighted tower.
But LDS church representatives presented compromises Tuesday, including darker lighting on the temple.
The temple construction is planned for a neighborhood near the western end of Cody.
People who live nearby said the 100-foot tall lighted tower would block their view of the night sky.
At the last meeting, church representatives said they could turn off the tower lights from 1 a.m. until 5 a.m., but at the August meeting church officials suggested they could turn off the tower lights from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. each day, and might reduce the tower height from 100 feet to 85 feet.
After three votes, the board finally approved the plan, but not all of it. LDS church member Luke Hopkin explained the final vote allows the church to decide on the tower height.
“The final vote included mitigations that had been talked about, such as lighting, but it removed the language related to the height of the steeple, which had been proposed to be reduced to 85 feet,” Hopkin said
Hopkin said the construction can begin as soon as the city issue a building permit. Zoning and Planning board members said they’ve received hundreds of emails about the project.
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