The City of Cody has issued a building permit to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) to build a temple there. The Temple will have a 101 foot tower, or steeple above it.
Cody Mayor Matt Hall said the city was forced to issue the permit because LDS representatives from Salt Lake City threatened to file a federal lawsuit if the permit was further delayed.
Members of a group called Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods filed suit in District Court last month, saying Cody’s Planning and Zoning Board was wrong to approve a special use permit for the temple in a rural neighborhood. They claim the 101 foot lighted tower above the temple will block views of the surrounding mountains and night skies, reduce their property values, and bring too much traffic to a two lane road.
But, the Church had also filed a lawsuit in District Court. Hall said the city delayed the permit for about six weeks to try to make amends between the two opposing parties.
“Given the fact that we’ve got all these appeals in District Court to see if we could get the Citizen’s group together with the LDS Church to see if they could find some middle ground to see if they could try to work out a few of these things,” Hall said.
But Hall said LDS representatives threatened to file a lawsuit in federal court if the city delayed issuing a building permit any longer.
“We decided to take the liability that the city might be facing out of the equation,” he said.
Hall said District Court will probably review the pending lawsuits in Cody as early as Wednesday.
By Tuesday morning, no construction had started at the site at the west end of Skyline Drive.