A great big thank you to user jarmcguire for supplying most of the information in this article.

    UPDATE: A Neighbor's Tour of the temple will be held Saturday, May 23, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM for all residents living in Eastlake Village. The local LDS youth will soon deliver invitations to every home in the area and the temple hosts/ushers will check for these invitations as guests arrive for the Neighbor Tour.

     Ticket reservations begin today, Monday May 4, 2009, for the upcoming Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Whether you belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or not—whether you’re thrilled, or curious, or concerned about the new temple in Daybreak—the Open House will be an opportunity to explore a local Daybreak feature that you won’t want to miss.

     The Oquirrh Mountain Temple will be open to the general public from June 1 to Aug 1, Mondays through Saturdays, with breaks for the Fourth and Twenty-Fourth of July. One-and-a-half hour tours will begin at 8:00 AM and run every ten minutes until the last one each day at 8:50 PM (except Mondays when the last tour will end at 4:30 PM). Tours will include a short video in an air-conditioned tent about the history of South Jordan and the importance of temples to LDS people, a tour of the interior of the temple building, and light refreshments (it wouldn’t be a church function without those refreshments!)

.     You can make reservations by calling 801-240-7645 or online at www.lds.org/reservations. Only groups up to ten can be accommodated online, to make reservations for larger groups you’ll need to call. Everyone is welcome to attend the Open House including children in strollers and people requiring wheelchair assistance. There will even be Spanish language translators on hand.

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     As an estimated 800,000 people are expected to attend the open house in those two months, the LDS Church and the City of South Jordan are taking specific crowd-control measures. Of most concern to those of us living near the temple site is the visitor traffic. One of three parking lots and specific directions to it will be assigned with each ticket reservation (and unlike at the Draper Open House, they will require proof of a reservation to park and attend). The temple parking lot itself (accessed from 4000 W) will handle 20% of the parking, while the remainder will be divided between the empty custom home lots to the northwest and southwest of the temple and "No Parking" signs will be posted along the streets. Please view the attached map for planned driving routes and parking areas (all determined by the City of South Jordan). Rumor has it that there will be a special VIP Guest Open House as a “thank you” for residents in Eastlake Village, like me, who’ll have to put up with the inconvenience of lines of cars driving past their front door. I’ll keep you posted on it.

.     Even though I have to admit I’m not looking forward to a summer of busy streets, it’s something I expected when I chose to purchase a home just down the street from a new temple. And the crowds will only last for a couple of months. When the Open House is over and the temple becomes closed to those without an LDS temple recommend, most continuing patrons will enter the Oquirrh Mountain Temple from 4000 W; returning our lovely community back to its peaceful state. In the meantime, we can appreciate the opportunity to share Daybreak--its beauty, distinctiveness, and sense of community--with the world.

Attachments:

temple parking map

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