After securing a favorable court ruling last month, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says it’s starting work on its new temple in Cody.

“Preliminary construction work is now underway on the property and a ceremonial groundbreaking service will be scheduled in the future,” church media relations manager Sam Penrod said in a Tuesday statement to the Tribune.

Meanwhile, neighbors opposed to the location say they’ll continue to challenge the project in court.

Following a public process that drew hundreds of comments from opponents and supporters, the City of Cody approved the church’s plans to build the 9,950 square foot temple west of the Olive Glenn Golf Course. City officials cleared the church to start construction in September 2023, when they issued a building permit for the project.

However, both the church and Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods — a group of roughly a dozen couples and individuals who believe the structure doesn’t fit in their residential area — appealed the city’s decisions. Although they could have begun construction while the cases were pending, church officials voluntarily decided to hold off while a judge considered the parties’ arguments.

Last month, retired District Court Judge John Perry sided with the church, ruling that the city’s planning and zoning board approved the temple plans at its first public meeting on the subject. Perry also tossed the appeals brought by Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods, finding that they were filed too late.

It’s in the wake of that Aug. 26 ruling that the church has decided to move forward with construction.

The legal battle will continue, however, as the neighbor group announced Monday that it’s appealing Perry’s decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Filing an appeal

In a statement posted to Facebook, Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods suggested that Perry’s decision misread the record of how things played out with the city, misapplied appellate procedure and “unexplainably” failed to discuss several significant issues in the case. Further, the group expressed concern that Perry’s analysis “effectively denied the public meaningful participation in the City Planning and Zoning process of this controversial zoning application.”

The judge held that, without necessarily meaning to, the planning and zoning board approved the temple, its controversial 100 foot, 11 inch tower and all the other elements when it voted 3-1-1 on a site plan. At the time of the June 15, 2023, meeting, the board members mistakenly believed the motion had failed. They went back and revised the findings that then-City Planner Todd Stowell had attached to the site plan, including one about whether the tower complied with the area’s zoning. Perry, however, said the board had made its decision at the June 15 meeting and lacked the authority to revisit it. The judge’s ruling effectively voided the work that the board did at five subsequent meetings in June, July and August 2023.

The project

The temple is being constructed on a vacant 4.69-acre parcel of land that sits off Cody’s Skyline Drive. It’s estimated to be a $41 million project.

The church is using a modular design and shipped many prefabricated pieces of the structure to Cody last year, ahead of the city’s review process.

Temples serve an important role within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hosting sacred ceremonies. Unlike the church’s meeting houses or chapels, where anyone is welcome, only faithful members of the church may enter a temple once the facility is formally dedicated. The church does, however, offer public tours ahead of the dedication.

A public open house for the church’s just-finished 9,950 square foot temple in Casper began Aug. 26 and continues through Saturday.