Mesa Mormon temple's redevelopment plans raise historic-preservation concerns

Plans for redevelopment around Mesa's Temple Historic District, including the demolition of as many as eight homes owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have some historic preservationists concerned.

"What’s really boiled up… is a lack of communication with the preservation board," said Vic Linoff, a longtime city preservationist.

'Property rights always prevail'

The church has filed to demolish nine properties in the Temple Historic District near Main and Lesueur streets, Mesa Planning Director John Wesley said. One of the properties is the church's family history center and the other eight are 1950s-era bungalow homes mostly on Udall Street.

The city denied three applications and six remain under review. The church must undergo a required six-month waiting period, but will be able to demolish any of the properties after that. Because the church owns the properties, the city must legally give the demolition permits after six months, Wesley said.

"Property rights always prevail," Linoff said of historic property battles.

Broader historic concerns

Linoff and others are concerned that the demolition permits for the houses did not go through the city's Historic Preservation Board and instead went to city staff. Linoff isn't on the board but is president of the separate, non-profit Mesa Preservation Foundation. The temple issue may be symptomatic of a larger battle over historic preservation in Mesa as plans for downtown development rev up.

Wesley said the church applied for the nine demolition permits on the basis that the properties are so dilapidated that they posed an immediate safety risk and need to be knocked down instead of taking it to the board first.

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The preservation board will get its chance to negotiate with the church during the six-month waiting period, Wesley said.

"They will be required as part of ordinance steps to try to work with staff and take it to the board to see if there are any ways to modify the plans and save the buildings," he said.

Members of the Historic Preservation Board did not say during a May 1 meeting whether they think the buildings should be saved. The issue will be discussed in upcoming meetings.

What redevelopment is planned for temple?

The temple will close for a planned two-year renovation in May, a church spokesman confirmed in an email.

The Mesa temple, near Main Street and Mesa Drive, opened in 1927 and is Arizona's oldest Mormon temple.

The church has held redevelopment plans for the area for decades, said Denny Barney, a Maricopa County supervisor who donated his time to help the church acquire some of the houses slated for demolition.

"It’s been a long time, frankly, that they’ve been working on (redevelopment)," Barney said.

In 2011,The Arizona Republic reported that Barney and others were cleaning up the area around the temple for redevelopment in anticipation of the light rail's arrival. At that time, he made a $40,000 "no-strings-attached" donation to the city to overhaul its zoning code to make redevelopment easier.

Barney and Mesa Mayor John Giles met in April in Salt Lake City with church leaders about the temple renovations, the mayor's spokeswoman, Melissa Randazzo, confirmed. Both are members of the Mormon church.

The temple will undergo an "extensive remodel" on the inside during the two-year shutdown and the existing visitor's center on Main Street will be demolished, according to Wesley. The church has not yet filed a finalized plan, but the planning director said he has seen some concepts. The church will move the visitor's center to the southwest side of Lesueur and Main streets, closer to the light rail, Wesley said.

Barney said the church will also add housing.

Daniel Woodruff, a spokesman for the church headquarters in Salt Lake City, emailed a statement that specific redevelopment plans will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

"Part of the construction will include redevelopment of the land surrounding the temple grounds," he wrote. "The Church has worked extensively with city and county officials to ensure these plans will benefit and enhance the downtown Mesa area."

Jake Brown, a resident of the district, said the church will meet with neighborhood residents the week of May 7.

"Mesa’s going to be changing, that whole downtown corridor is going to be changing," said Brown, who is also running for City Council in Mesa's August election. "I’m excited for the church to come and talk to our neighborhood."

What's the preservation board's role?

Mesa's Temple Historic District, which includes the 1920s-era temple and properties around it, was designated as a Local Historic District in 2001 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Under city ordinances, a permit to alter a property within a historic district must go through Mesa's historic preservation officer, who works in the city's planning department, or its Historic Preservation Board, Wesley said.

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The temple issue went to the preservation officer instead of the board. Dozens discussed that publicly over Facebook over the weekend, before a Historic Preservation Board meeting on May 1, which appeared to catch many of its members off-guard.

To Jennifer Duff, a member of the city's Planning and Zoning Board, this signals problems in how Mesa confronts historic preservation.

"I think process has been lost on historic properties," said Duff, who is also running for council. "There’s things being published publicly about demolitions that haven’t been processed."

As downtown revitalized, who protects history?

Historic Preservation Board members are pushing for a full-time historic preservation officer, a city role that has gone unfilled since the Great Recession of 2008.

The City Council will consider $100,000 to staff the position in late May, Wesley said. But Janice Gennevois, the preservation board's vice chair, said during the May 1 meeting that she was concerned that the council would vote to make the position a contract or consultant role, not a full-time staff role.

Mesa has a part-time historic preservation officer who works under Wesley in the city's planning division. Gennevois also raised concerns that the role should be moved out of that department.

"When you move it to a division that tears down buildings for its living and that person is tasked to protect buildings, it feels like a conflict of interest for me," she said in the meeting. "Because the person is saving buildings with the right hand and tearing it down with the left hand."

Mesa's downtown is seeing a revived push for development as officials explore transforming the area into a hotbed for startups and tech companies. But preservationists worry that historic buildings might be lost in the process.

"Historic preservation is the strength and stability of downtown … we’re one of the last remaining downtowns and we don’t want to lose that," Duff said. "We want to make sure our historic preservation process is as strong as our development."

Reach reporter Lily Altavena at laltavena@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8927. Follow her on Twitter: @lilyalta.

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