The Collin County town of Fairview is fighting against plans by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a temple with a spire over 170 feet tall, according to recent news reports.
The church wants to build McKinney Texas Temple — announced in October 2022 — next to an existing Latter-day Saints church, according to a website about Mormon temples. However, residents have come out strongly against the proposal.
The controversy is not due to the temple’s religious affiliation but rather its size.
The temple is planned for a roughly 8-acre site along Stacy Road, next to one of the church’s meetinghouses. It would be about 44,000 square feet and multiple stories, according to the church’s website.
The church’s spire, proposed to be 173 feet and 9 inches, would make it the tallest building in Fairview, a town of about 10,000 south of McKinney and east of U.S. Highway 75. A structure that tall cannot be accommodated by any town ordinances, according to WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
However, the church is seeking special approval that would allow construction to move ahead anyway. The church and its supporters have argued the Constitution protects the spire from zoning limits because it serves a religious purpose.
Church spokeswoman Melissa McKneely told WFAA that the spire is religiously important because it is a “representation of something reaching up to the heavens and it helps us look to heaven and God.”
In early May, the church held an open house, during which residents and media were invited to talk about the project, WFAA reported.
“It’s just a good-faith effort to be able to share details about our project, listen to their concerns and have them ask questions,” McKneely said, according to WFAA.
However, the outlet reported residents showed up to the open house wearing green shirts that read “Fairview United” and “Keeping it Country and not an inch more,” a reference to the town’s motto.
About a week after the open house, the Fairview Planning and Zoning Committee voted to recommend the Town Council reject the church’s proposal. Fairview Mayor Henry Lessner expressed his support for this recommendation.
“I can only speak for myself. I will never approve that,” Lessner said, according to KTVT-TV (Channel 11). “It is just grossly out of proportion to everything around there.”
On June 4, debate over the church’s construction continued. Hundreds of people showed up to the meeting, WFAA reported, with Fairview residents arguing height restrictions are written into the city code for the purpose of keeping Fairview’s country feel.
The council ultimately decided to table the permit request until its Aug. 6 meeting to give the church time to return with a proposal for a smaller spire, WFAA reported.
“We want them to get their church. They’re just not allowed to build it at the size they’re trying to build it,” Inga Fredrickson told WFAA.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has more than 385,000 members about 750 congregations in Texas, according to the church website. It has eight other temples existing or in the works in Texas, including one in Dallas and one in Fort Worth, according to its website.
Correction, 3:00 p.m., June 17, 2024: An earlier version of this story stated that there were seven other temples existing or in the works in Texas when there are eight.
