The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Aug. 31 that its Queen Creek Arizona Temple will be built southeast of Ryan Road and Euell Drive, on ground between Meridian Road and Ironwood Road that was unincorporated San Tan Valley before Queen Creek annexed it.

For a lot of readers, that is the part of this that lands closest to home.

What Is Being Built

The temple will be 82,000 square feet on a 15.5-acre site, with a meetinghouse and an ancillary building alongside it, according to the church's newsroom.

The temple itself was announced in 2024 by President Russell M. Nelson. The Aug. 31 announcement settled where it goes.

Six temples currently operate in Arizona. Queen Creek is one of three more that have been announced and not yet built, along with Yuma and Flagstaff.

Why the Location Is a San Tan Valley Story

The ground the temple will sit on came into Queen Creek through the Ironwood Crossing annexation. The Queen Creek Town Council approved it on March 7, 2018, and it took effect April 9, 2018, moving about 1,485 acres of what had been unincorporated San Tan Valley across the town line. SanTanValley.com covered it at the time: Town of Queen Creek Approves Ironwood Crossing Annexation.

That was not the only one. Queen Creek has also taken in the j-curve at Empire and Ellsworth, Banner Ironwood, and roughly 755 acres along Combs and Gantzel that included Encanterra. We covered the 4,140-acre annexation and, this year, a planning-area adjustment still in progress.

The result is a boundary that has moved repeatedly, and a lot of residents who are no longer sure which side of it they are on. If you are not certain whether your own address is inside the Town of San Tan Valley, inside the Town of Queen Creek, or in unincorporated San Tan Valley, our guide to whether you live in San Tan Valley walks through it.

What It Means for Neighbors

A temple is not a typical land use, and the practical questions for people living nearby are ordinary ones: traffic on Ryan Road and Ironwood, lighting, construction timing, and what the meetinghouse and ancillary building add to the site.

Because the parcel is inside Queen Creek, those decisions run through Queen Creek's process. Residents in unincorporated San Tan Valley immediately outside that line have no vote in Queen Creek elections, and neither does the Town of San Tan Valley.

No construction start date has been announced.