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SALT LAKE CITY — Construction on two new Utah temples will soon begin.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday announced groundbreaking plans for the Taylorsville Utah Temple, in Salt Lake County, and the Red Cliffs Utah Temple, in Washington County.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Taylorsville temple will be held in October, and the new temple in Washington County will break ground the following month. The church did not announce specific dates since attendance at the groundbreaking ceremonies will be invitation-only due to COVID-19 guidelines.
In addition to plans for the groundbreaking ceremony, the church released the first renderings of the Taylorsville temple. The temple will be three stories high and approximately 70,000 square feet, with a center spire. It will be built on a 7.5-acre site located at 2603 W. 4700 South, just west of the 4700 South exit off I-215.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong, of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, will preside at the Taylorsville temple groundbreaking.
The Red Cliffs temple will be built on a 14-acre site located northeast of 3000 E. 1580 South in St. George. The temple will be approximately 90,000 square feet and three stories high.
Both the Taylorsville and Red Cliffs temples were announced in October 2019 by President Russell M. Nelson, but the new St. George temple didn’t get its official name until recently. On June 19, the First Presidency announced the temple's name had changed from the Washington County Utah Temple.
The Red Cliffs temple will be about 5 miles southeast of the St. George Utah Temple. That temple, which was constructed in 1877 and was the first temple in Utah to open, is currently closed for renovations; it is expected to reopen in 2022.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, will preside at the Red Cliffs temple groundbreaking. Elder Holland is a native of St. George.
There are 24 temples belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah that are announced, under construction, under renovation, or in operation. In addition to the temples in Taylorsville and St. George, new temples have been announced in Orem, Syracuse and the Tooele Valley.
Editor's Note: Deseret Digital Media, Inc., the operator of KSL.com, is a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
