LAS VEGAS — The Nevada Supreme Court has dismissed a community group’s appeals challenging construction of a sacred temple being built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Lone Mountain neighborhood of Las Vegas, clearing the way for the project to proceed.
In a dismissal order filed this week, the court said the Nevada Rural Preservation Alliance failed to respond to two separate orders directing the group to retain new legal counsel after its previous attorney, Evan Schwab, withdrew from the case in July. Schwab’s withdrawal motion did not specify a reason, citing only unresolved conflicts.
The court said it gave the alliance two weeks to secure a new attorney and warned that its appeals could be dismissed without a response. When no reply came, the court issued a second order in August reiterating the need for new counsel. The alliance still did not respond. The order, signed by Justices Lidia Stiglich, Elissa Cadish and Patricia Lee, noted that the group had failed to comply or communicate with the court at all.
The case centers on the Lone Mountain Temple, planned for the corner of Hickam Avenue and Grand Canyon Drive in Las Vegas. Church leaders have said the temple is needed to serve a growing membership in the Las Vegas valley. Nearby residents, organized as the Nevada Rural Preservation Alliance, argued the building does not fit the area’s rural residential zoning and could worsen traffic, air quality and light pollution.
The group filed a petition for judicial review in 2024 seeking to overturn the city of Las Vegas’s approval of the project. A Clark County district judge, Ronald Israel, dismissed the suit last year for lack of standing and ordered the alliance to cover the city’s attorney’s fees, prompting two appeals that were later consolidated before the state’s highest court.
Following the dismissal, the Church said in a statement posted to social media that with no active legal challenges remaining, construction of the temple can move forward.
