Green Community Plan Faces Opposition from LDS Church

By Alison Lesley --
23 Aug 2016 --

LDS opposes Mormon businessman’s vision to create environmentally-friendly communities.

A Mormon multimillionaire’s vision of a pro-green community has been opposed strongly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. David Hall, a businessman who made his wealth by dealing with the development of equipment and tools used in gas and oil drilling came up with a dream of building a community around religious landmarks at Vermont and Utah, which he calls “new age green communities.”

Green Community Plan Faces Opposition from LDS Church[/tweetthis]

Hall's dream communities involve a large, community garden surrounded by three-story houses with a rooftop garden. People in the community would use electrically-charged public transport. These communities are envisioned as diamond-shaped clusters, with roughly 15,000-20,000 residents. The communities would be complete with energy-efficient buildings where the residents can have their community gatherings.

One such prototype is the “Utopia in Vermont,” a community that has been planned for 20,000 residents. This community will have gardens, offices, and close to 50 swimming pools and basketball courts each. This community has been designed around the monument at the birthplace of the Mormon Church's founder, Joseph Smith.

The LDS church has bitterly opposed Hall's plans claiming that it may alter the Mormon way of life, while also desecrating their religious landmarks. The Church believes that these “green communities” will affect the relationship between the Church and the current residents of those places. Spokespersons for the Church have affirmed that while they are not interested in making judgments on the social, environmental, or scientific implications of this project, they are still opposed to the project for a variety of reasons.

Hall's project, running under the name of NewVistas is facing stiff opposition from Vermonters with the protestors displaying signs and placards that oppose this plan. The protestors feel that this project is absurd and the scale at which it will take place is too large to actually work out. As the localities where Hall intends to carry out his projects are very old communities, the opponents say that his idea will just be a failure and a murder of the historical richness of these areas.

Mormon church opposes plan for futuristic, green communities – Press Herald https://t.co/a9yrOuIDgp #SUSTAINABILITY #AGENDA21
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Hall on the other hand seemed undaunted by the Church's opposition. In fact, he declared that he had expected the opposition and as such, was not surprised one bit. He also says that he is facing opposition from the Mormon church because the church leaders lack progressive and forward thinking. Besides, he claims that the church leaders are worried about their image.

Hall has clarified that he does not care about what people think and that he will go forward with his idea anyway.