It’s very exciting times for those of us who live in northern Colorado: the Church announced at General Conference in April that a new temple would be built in Fort Collins. Today, the Church announced the location of that temple.
The site is currently a field on the corner of two large streets in the southeastern part of Fort Collins. It is across the street from a larger-than-normal chapel that many people think will eventually become a stake center of a new stake. The site is inside the boundaries of the Loveland stake, to which I belong.
The new site is about five minutes off of I-25. I would guess that the new temple boundaries will include southern Wyoming (the Laramie and Cheyenne areas), as well as stakes in northern Colorado, including Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont and probably Boulder and all the way down to Thornton and the southeastern parts of Boulder county. I’d also be willing to bet that the northeastern parts of Colorado (Sterling and Fort Morgan) will be served by the new temple and also northwestern Kansas and western Nebraska. The new location is very central for many of these people, and the drive for people in Laramie, Wyoming, for example, will be an hour, compared to more than two hours to the Denver temple today.
At stake conference we were told the size of the temple would be in the range of a “mid-size temple,” meaning about 10,000 to 11,000 square feet. This probably means two or three endowment rooms and no cafeteria.
The field where the temple will be built is in a mostly residential area just 15 minutes from the Loveland-Fort Collins airport. It is pretty far from downtown Fort Collins, where Colorado State University is located.
Anyway, my wife and I are really excited. Most people do not anticipate a lot of opposition to the new temple, but you never know. The stake president asked us at stake conference to pray for quick approval of the new temple, and we have been doing that as a family.
I agree that the temple district will be largely contiguous with the BSA Longs Peak Council as well as the youth dance multistake region. Most of western Nebraska is in the Cheyenne Stake (Sidney and Scottsbluff Wards), and Sterling ward and Yuma Branch are in the Greeley stake, so you’re probably right about all of Northeast Colorado. Boulder is the stake I’m not so sure about since there’s no easy route for them northward without going through two or more congested towns; with CO-97 and 470 they’ve got a fairly good access to the Denver Temple, and the distance is about evenly split.
With BOM the Musical opening in Denver in December 2012, it is going to be a fun time for th public relations people in Colorado. I’m guessing there’ll be a huge interest in the Open House.
Coffinberry, i didn’t know the BoM musical is headed our way, but you’re right, that should make forinteresting PR times.
Coffinberry, I know some people in the Boulder stake and they would much prefer going north than dealing with the Denver traffic. You could take the diagonal to 287 and then hop over to I-25 and get there in 50 minutes from downtown Boulder. It’s about an hour-plus to Centennial taking 36 and then you risk Denver traffic, which will all know can be horrible.
I used to work at the Boulder courthouse, and it was a rare day when it took less than 45 min to get the 16 miles home to North Longmont, let alone all the way up to north Loveland. But by golly you’re right that almost anything is easier than going through downtown Denver.
The recent addition of bus service to Fort Collins from Longmont could make this interesting… Do you know if there is bus service that connects the north-south route 287 to the site?
Yes, those completely empty buses go by me all the time in Berthoud. I don’t think there is a route from the Fort Collins stop down to Timberline, but I could be wrong because I’m not that familiar with buses in Fort Collins. For the foreseeable future, approximately 99.999999999 percent of temple-goers will be arriving at the Fort Collins temple by car.
My husband served a good part of his mission in your area, and up in Wyoming. We’re also very excited for you guys! Perhaps, we’ll need to take a trip to that part of Colorado soon.
The best time to come is May or June when it is nice and green and there is still snow in the mountains and the weather is nice. We have been getting a lot of rain the last few weeks so the hills are still green. Absolutely gorgeous.
Fort Collins has held a special place in my heart ever since I visited there in 2005.
Here in Central Wyoming we are excited too. We may still be assigned to the Billings Temple but many of us have business and family in Colorado. This will be a real treat to have a temple north of the Denver traffic congestion. I look forward to this temple with great anticipation!
I live in an area that also had a Temple announced. I was wondering how did the Saints in Colorado find out that a site had been picked? Was there a special meeting and it was announced, did they find out by reading the Church News or how did it come out?