The LDS Church is "not in favor" of plans by a Utah-based businessman to build compact, eco-friendly communities in Provo and Vermont modeled on the vision of Mormon founder Joseph Smith.
David C. Hall has devoted a substantial portion of his personal wealth and dozens of businesses he owns to making a reality of Smith's Plat of Zion, an intricate city blueprint drawn by the LDS prophet in 1833.
A Provo native and heir to a family diamond-making operation, Hall has been buying property in Provo's Pleasant View neighborhood, near the LDS Church's Missionary Training Center, and in Sharon, Vt., Smith's birthplace, in hopes of erecting a series of futuristic, self-sufficient and high-density centers. Residents in both locales have organized to fight the plans.
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