Temple to Open Amid Controversy

September 19, 2000

Source: Los Angeles Times

On September 19, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported on a controversy brewing in a Boston suburb over the construction of a Mormon temple. The dispute has been in and out of the courts for over four years, with local residents contending that the "three-story temple threatens the character of a bedroom community known for decades as 'a town of homes.'" Opposition to the temple came from some residents of Belmont who "forced the Mormon Church to scale back a design featuring six golden spire towers--the main one 13 stories tall and topped with a statue of the angel Moroni. A state judge sided with property owners who fought a compromise plan for a single 139-foot steeple." The concession was not enough for some Belmont residents, such as MIT professor Charles Counselman. Counselman believes that a 50 year old law known as the Dover Amendment, which exempts "religious and educational institutions from conventional zoning restrictions, permitting construction in residential areas such as the neighborhood where the Belmont temple now looms," is unconstitutional. He and others say "the Massachusetts law discriminates in favor of religious groups because nonreligious organizations would be barred from building at the Mormon temple site." Boston lawyer Paul Killeen, who is representing the Mormon Church, said that the "opponents are displaying all the signs of NIMBY-ism, the not-in-my-backyard mentality. 'They have made a decision that they don't want to accommodate other people's religions,' he said. 'Theirs is fine; theirs is already built.'" Counselman disagrees, "The opposition that the neighbors have to this temple is exactly the same kind of opposition you'd have if someone wanted to build a shopping mall on that location," he said.

See also: Christianity, Zoning