By rssfeeds-admin The town’s mayor, however, said that Fairview has kept its side of the agreement and the church has not, claiming the letter has “serious inaccuracies.”
The source of the controversy
The temple in question — deemed the McKinney Texas Temple — was first announced for Prosper, Texas, in 2022 and relocated to the neighboring town of Fairview the following year. The temple, however, is no closer to being built now than when it was first announced several years ago.
The McKinney Texas Temple has been at the center of a back-and-forth debate between church and town leaders, with Fairview authorities concerned mainly over the height of the temple and the light it emanates at night.
The town leaders have previously expressed concerns that the temple would be the tallest building in the town and located in a residentially zoned area. Leaders also pointed out that Fairview has a dark sky ordinance to restrict lighting at night to help the migrating birds. The temple’s being lit up at night posed an issue for the town.
In November, the two parties entered into mediation and reached an agreement, with both sides making concessions. One such concession included the church agreeing to reduce the proposed height of the building by more than 50 feet, making it a single-story structure.
The mediation was not the end, as the “non-binding” agreement still had to go through a re-submission process with the town’s Planning and Zoning Board before facing the town council. A town newsletter sent to residents in January suggested that there is a decent chance the agreed-upon design will not be accepted.
“If this happens, it moves us closer to being sued by the LDS church and the potential dire financial consequences of that action for the Town, should the Town lose in court. In my meetings with over 100 residents this week, the sense I get is that the overwhelming number of residents want this to get to court,” the January newsletter reads.
The recent letter
The new letter delivered on Monday, March 17, expresses concern that the town council appears “to have already withdrawn their support from the agreement made during the recent mediation.”
“We remain concerned, however, that our religious rights could be compromised if the Town does not honor its word as agreed to during mediation,” the letter reads. “We entered mediation with hopes for a respectful and expedient solution that advanced everyone’s goals. That remains our hope.”
Church leaders end the letter by asking the town to “reaffirm the commitments made during the mediation process.”
The letter vaguely threatens legal action should the council withdraw its support, saying “upholding the agreement is an essential reassurance that would make it unnecessary for us to seek judicial assistance to resolve this impasse.”
However, Fairview Mayor Henry Lessner said the town has not withdrawn its support for the agreement, and that each representative of the town council individually chose not to respond to the church “to avoid any appearance of impropriety.”
“The Town has met its commitments coming out of the November mediation meeting. The church has not,” Lessner said. “They were supposed to have filed documentation associated with the mediated building design on January 13. Instead, they decided to send a notice of a lawsuit letter.”
Lessner said he is still waiting for “the courtesy of some sort of response from LDS leadership” as he has requested to meet with anyone who is not a church attorney. He said he is willing to travel to Salt Lake City for the meeting.
“After more than a year, I as the highest elected official in the Town of Fairview, still have not met anyone who is a decision-maker in the LDS church. All we see are attorneys,” he said.
The town council will be meeting early next week to discuss the issue. The church leaders’ letter is included below:
Spencer Mahon, Trevor Myers, and Garret Hodson contributed to this story.
Discover more from RSS Feeds Cloud
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.