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LDS Church proposes new community near future Tooele Valley Temple

Real estate developers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have unveiled plans for building a new walkable residential community around the still-to-be-built Tooele Valley Temple.

The plans, which need approval from the Tooele County Commission, call for several hundred single-family homes on a variety of lot sizes, located northwest of the intersection of Erda Way and Highway 36 in Erda.

The community would also include more than 32 acres of open space and an additional selection of attached housing for residents over age 55, according to officials with the church’s development arm, Suburban Land Reserve.

The company’s head said in a Tuesday news release that the development would complement the new three-story, 70,000-square-foot temple, announced by church President Russell M. Nelson in April 2019.

“In addition to contributing to needed utility infrastructure around the temple," Steven Romney, president of Suburban Land Reserve, said, “this community will help protect the temple and create a place where people can enjoy the setting of this sacred building in ways that are important and meaningful to them.”

(Rendering courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) This is an artist's rendering of a portion of the planned residential community near the site of the Tooele Valley Utah Temple.

Renderings show the community with clusters of homes, a regional park, playing fields, pickleball courts, a natural vegetation walking trail and more — all interspersed with water features, wide green spaces and tall stands of trees.

Ashley Powell, president of another church development arm, said the project will also improve and enhance the largely vacant land around the planned religious edifice.

“The temple’s timeless architecture and manicured grounds,” Powells said, “will be a beautiful, enduring central feature of the community for all who will live there, regardless of religious affiliation.”

No groundbreaking has been set yet for the temple, and timelines for the new Erda community would be shaped by government review and market demand, Suburban Land Reserve said.

The site currently lacks utilities such as water and sewer lines, officials noted.

If the development wins county approval, residences would be constructed by a variety of Utah and regional homebuilders, Suburban Land Reserve said.

(Rendering courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) This is an artist's rendering of a portion of the planned residential community near the site of the Tooele Valley Utah Temple.