Calgary Alberta Temple

On Friday, August 7, 2009, Abbarch Architecture applied for a land use amendment with the City of Calgary to accommodate a "Place of Worship" at 81 Royal Elm Dr NW—the intended site of the Calgary Alberta Temple.¹ This application implies that plans for the temple are ready for the construction approval process. The first step is to redesignate the use of the land, which typically takes 3 to 6 months in Calgary. The land use amendment application is initially reviewed by various City departments and officials, and then it proceeds with a recommendation to the Calgary Planning Commission and finally to a public hearing held by City Council.

As described by Elder Richard K. Melchin, Area Seventy in the North America Central Area, the temple site is a "beautiful site with a panoramic view of the city." Located next to the Royal Oak Chapel in northwest Calgary, the site was purchased about four years prior to the temple announcement. Over 18,000 members live in Calgary organized into six stakes.²

Access to the temple will be greatly facilitated by the recently announced Tuscany/Royal Oak C-Train station. C-Train is Calgary's light rail transit (LRT), which provides public transportation to various sections of the city. The Tuscany/Royal Oak station will be located within short walking distance of the temple at the intersection of Crowchild Trail and Rocky Ridge Road, which borders the temple site to the west. The station was originally planned to be completed after 2023, but on November 7, 2007, the Calgary City Council approved and funded completion of the station by 2011—likely the same year or earlier that the temple will be completed.³

The Calgary Ring Road—a beltway project that is surrounding Calgary with a high-capacity freeway—will also improve access to the temple. The Stoney Trail/Crowchild Trail Interchange, just a couple of blocks from the temple site, is planned to be completed in 2009.⁴

President Thomas S. Monson announced the temple in the opening session of General Conference on October 4, 2008.⁵ Once completed, the Calgary Alberta Temple will be Canada's eighth temple and Alberta's third. The other Albertan temples are located in Cardston, Alberta and in Edmonton, Alberta. In the adjoining province of British Columbia, the Vancouver British Columbia Temple is currently under construction.

Mormons first began to settle in southern Alberta in the 1880s as contract workers on the Canadian Pacific Railroad and as farmers in present-day Cardston. By 1895, the first stake in Alberta was established, and membership in the Church has continued to thrive ever since. Today there are over 75,000 members throughout the province.⁶

The Calgary Alberta Temple will be the eighth temple built in Canada and the third in Alberta, following the Cardston Alberta Temple (1923) and the Edmonton Alberta Temple (1999).