“Why,” asks an exasperated Texas mayor, “does this church hide behind their attorneys?”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) An artist’s rendering for the recently approved Fairview Texas Temple, with its shorter steeple and new name.
In a 5-2 vote late Tuesday, the Fairview Town Council begrudgingly approved plans submitted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for construction of a temple in the Dallas suburb.
“This has been an extraordinarily difficult decision, how to deal with this,” Mayor Henry Lessner told a packed room and those listening from an overflow. “I will tell you that there’s seven of us up here. None of us are pleased with this, but it is what we think we need to do.”
(Henry Lessner) Fairview, Texas, Mayor Henry Lessner chastised the church for acting in what he deemed a less-than-neighborly fashion.
Forcing their hand, he and and his fellow council members who voted for the plan said, was the fact that the Utah-based church had made it clear that it stood ready to sue if the town of 11,000 residents did not approve the latest design — a reduced version the two parties shook hands on during mediation last November.
As part of those negotiations, the church agreed to shave approximately 54 feet off its initially proposed 174-foot-high building (spire included) and shrink its overall footprint from around 45,000 square feet to roughly 30,000 square feet.
The church also renamed the edifice this week to the Fairview Texas Temple after a request from the planning and zoning commission to reflect its actual location. The church had initially dubbed it the McKinney Texas Temple, a reference to a much larger neighboring city.
“We are grateful for the outcome of last night’s meeting and extend our sincere appreciation to the Fairview Town Council for honoring the terms of the mediated agreement,” Melissa McKneely, a Dallas-based church spokesperson, said in a statement. “We know the temple will be a peaceful addition to Fairview and the surrounding communities.”
Steeple fight
Despite the church’s concessions, many residents who rose to speak raised concerns about the current version’s 120-foot height, citing examples of other Latter-day Saint temples with much shorter or absent steeples.
Lessner stressed this point repeatedly, asking why church officials were unwilling to reduce the spire height to the planning and zoning commission’s suggestion of 68 feet and 3 inches. Doing so would restrict it to the height of what is currently the tallest building in the town’s residential zone — a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse near the temple site.
(Shelby Tauber | Special to The Tribune) The lot of the proposed site. In the background, a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse rises 68 feet into the air, spire included.
The answer, the project’s lead engineer, Tom Coppin, said, came down to inspiration from on high.
“The design of the Fairview Temple,” explained Coppin, of the firm Kimley-Horn and Associates, “as you see here, has been prayerfully considered and approved by senior leadership.”
Pressed further by the mayor, he added the need to take into account the overall look of the building.
“The height of the steeple,” he said, “has a direct proportionality to the size of the building.”
The next several hours were filled with passionate public comments for and against the current design, with the majority of supporters identifying as Latter-day Saints.
“For many church members, a temple that is beautifully designed, built and decorated, enhances and elevates [its] heavenly symbolism and experience,” explained Fairview resident and church member Nolan Godfrey, “not only when seeing it or entering it, but worshipping in it.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) An artist’s rendering of the originally proposed McKinney Texas Temple, with its taller steeple.
David vs. Goliath
Detractors, for their part, frequently cast the church as a bully reaching into its deep pockets to avoid reasonable compromises.
“ I hope you choose our town’s character over threats from the billion-dollar organization — be the David against the Goliath,” resident Lee Moore pleaded with the council before calling on it to restrict the overall height to the planning and zoning commission’s suggestion.
Lessner, in announcing his vote in favor of the church’s compromise design, accused the faith’s leaders of acting in an unneighborly fashion and rebuffing his requests to meet with top decision-makers.
“Why,” he asked, “does this church hide behind their attorneys?”
Fairview is hardly alone in its tense opposition to designs for a Latter-day Saint temple in a noncommercial zone, with similar debates pitting neighbor against neighbor all the way from Cody, Wyoming, to Las Vegas and even parts of Utah.
The Fairview Texas Temple is the state’s 10th temple announced, under construction or in operation. The Lone Star State is home to more than 390,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 750 congregations.
Church members view temples as the most sacred places on Earth, buildings where the faithful participate in their religion’s highest rites, including eternal marriage.