A judge has again cleared the way for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to begin building its new temple in Cody.

In a Monday ruling, retired District Court Judge John Perry upheld the City of Cody’s decision to approve the project, rejecting challenges filed by a group of neighbors who believe the temple should be built in another location. Perry’s decision hinged on procedural questions and not the merits of the case.

In a Wednesday statement, church spokesman Sam Penrod said the church is “grateful” for the court’s ruling. Since announcing a Cody temple in 2021, Penrod said the church “has worked with city leaders and listened to the concerns of residents, to bring an acceptable proposal forward that meets local zoning requirements.”

Meanwhile, the group of neighbors opposing the location, Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods, issued a Tuesday statement saying they may appeal Perry’s ruling.

While expressing respect for Perry’s authority, the group said it’s “concerned that the Court’s analysis is not correct and may merit further review by the Wyoming Supreme Court.”

The church has technically been free to begin construction since September, when the city issued a building permit, and in late January, Perry rejected a request from the neighbor group to block the church from starting construction. However, the church opted to hold off amid the litigation and has yet to announce when it might start.

A contentious process

When the church revealed its intent to build the 9,950 square foot facility just west of the Olive Glenn Golf Course — on a vacant 4.69-acre parcel off Skyline Drive — the plans quickly drew criticism from some neighboring residents. Several formed a group called Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods, whose rallying cry became “Relocate the Temple.”

The City of Cody’s Planning, Zoning, and Adjustment Board’s review of the project last year proved both convoluted and contentious, with hundreds of opponents and supporters weighing in and attending a series of public meetings.

A majority of the board members expressed concerns about whether the temple would be in harmony with the residential neighborhood that borders the site; the volunteer board spent nearly two months laboring over whether to approve its 101-foot high tower and nighttime lighting.

But in the end, Judge Perry ruled that most of those meetings and discussions were irrelevant.

Although they didn’t realize it at the time, the board members actually approved the church’s plans at their very first meeting on the subject, Perry wrote in his Monday decision.

The initial June 15, 2023 public meeting drew several hundred people to the Cody Auditorium and, between extensive public comments and board deliberations, lasted over five hours.

After working through 11 different motions, the board believed it had approved a conditional use permit for the temple while tabling the site plan and postponing a decision on whether the tower needed a special exemption to exceed a 30-foot limit on building height within that zoning area.

But things quickly became complicated.

The planner’s argument

Both before and at the initial meeting, City Planner Todd Stowell had argued that the tower was exempt from the 30-foot height restriction. The board explicitly declined to adopt Stowell’s viewpoint at the June 15 meeting.

The next day, board member Matt Moss texted Stowell and said that “I know that they [the other board members] are not gonna accept your interpretation …”

But Stowell replied that he believed the board had already made a finding that the height complied with the city’s height restrictions. He noted that a line saying the temple “complies with the building height limit” was included in the findings of fact attached to the board’s approval of the conditional use permit.

“I think I had inspiration to realize it as I was waking this morning and then had just enough time to do the report,” Stowell wrote to Moss, a fellow member of the LDS church. “When I finished I had goosebumps from feeling the [Holy] Spirit.”

In his report to the board, Stowell said that because the members never removed the finding, the board had arguably accepted his recommendation and settled the height issue.

“I read each of those findings in my staff presentation,” he wrote, “remember it was that time when you were thinking when is he ever going to finish?”

Stowell’s argument didn’t sit well with Board Chair Carson Rowley, who later wrote an email to Cody Mayor Matt Hall and Councilman Andy Quick that described the contention as “complete and utter bull—.” Rowley complained that he felt “deceived,” saying the board had made it clear they wanted to debate the height.

The board later decided to revisit the findings of fact and rewrite several of them, including to specify that only the “high roof’ complied with the 30-foot height limit.

An invalid process

However, in his Monday ruling, Judge Perry said the board lacked the legal authority to revisit its initial findings. As a result, the changes they made are invalid.

Further, although the board thought a motion to approve the site plan failed on a 3-1-1 vote, that was actually an approval, Perry wrote. 

Because three members aren’t a majority of the seven-member board, Rowley ruled that the motion to approve the site plan had failed; the board ultimately didn’t give final approval until an Aug. 8 meeting, where they added conditions that limited the temple’s nighttime lighting.

However, Perry determined that Cody City ordinance only requires the plan to receive the support of a majority of the board members “in attendance.”

As a result, “when three of the five present board members voted to approve the Site Plan [on June 15, 2023], the motion was approved as a matter of City of Cody Ordinance and that decision has the force and effect of law,” Perry wrote. He said the extra conditions about lighting are invalid.

Further, because the board made its final decisions at the June 15, 2023 meeting, the judge held that the appeals filed in August 2023 by Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods fell outside the 30-day window.

“The Court cannot agree that the Board’s improper and impromptu choice to reconsider the approval at subsequent meetings restart the clock for the filing of a petition for review,” Perry wrote, saying he lacked the jurisdiction to consider the group’s arguments.

Preserve Our Cody Neighborhoods now has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision to the Wyoming Supreme Court.