Master Planning Overview

The Area Presidency directs master planning efforts in the area. These efforts are conducted at a coordinating council or multistake level. The Area Presidency assigns an Area Seventy to oversee the development of a master plan with the support of the director for temporal affairs (DTA) and his staff.

Master planning at the coordinating council or multistake level is most suitable in locations where the Church is growing rapidly, where there is an opportunity to consolidate meetinghouse space, or where there is a high density of members.

The Area Seventy and the DTA and his staff work with local priesthood leaders to create and implement a long-term (minimum five-year) master plan.

They do this by generally following these steps:

1. The Area Seventy holds a coordinating council or multistake meeting to discuss doctrine, principles and guidelines, and stake statistics.

2. The DTA and his staff work with stake presidents to project growth and identify future trends.

3. Stake presidents identify any boundary changes that are needed to strengthen families, members, and units.

4. The DTA staff identifies meetinghouse solutions that can support priesthood plans.

5. The Area Seventy, stake presidents, and the DTA and staff finalize the master plan. The DTA, with the Area Seventy whenever possible, presents the master plan to the Area Presidency for area approval.

   Upon approval from the Area Presidency, the DTA submits the master plan to the Meetinghouse Facilities Department for review and joint approval.

6. Stake presidents submit identified boundary changes.

7. The DTA staff prepares projects to be included in the meetinghouse annual plan.

8. The Area Seventy, the stake presidents, and the DTA and his staff regularly update the plan as needed.