Craning to see the future

Young Chang

Looking up at a dirty-yellow crane surrounded by 8.5 acres of barren

land, Weatherford Clayton inhaled before exclaiming the sight was

beautiful.

“I don’t see the crane,� he said. “I’m seeing the top of the steeple,

the lighting. . . . It’ll add such an ethereal, spiritual feeling here.�

Clayton, president of the Newport-Mesa chapter of the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints, was accompanied by church members and

workmen Monday during the crane’s first hour on 2300 Bonita Canyon Drive.

Planners of a Mormon temple, to be built on the lot, parked the crane

there to simulate the effect of a proposed 124-foot steeple. The towering

piece to the temple has garnered both awe and complaints from nearby

Bonita Canyon residents.

“It’s the nature of any project of this kind,� Clayton said. “We

understand there’ll be some differences.�

The church president said temples around the country with steeples

even higher than Newport Beach’s proposed 124-footer have caused similar

disagreements in the past.

“But our experience has been that the neighbors are very pleased� in

the end, Clayton said. “I have every reason to believe it’ll be the same

way here.�

The crane will be on display through Friday.