facebook-pixel

Temple fight is revived — and now the LDS Church plans to sue

The development is the latest in a bitter battle that has pitted Texas town’s residents against the Utah-based faith.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has put the Texas town of Fairview on notice of its intent to sue the Dallas suburb over the size of a proposed temple.

According to a memorandum prepared by the church’s lawyer, the escalation is in response to the mayor of the 11,000-resident town repeatedly throwing cold water on a November deal between the parties.

In it, the church agreed to shave approximately 54 feet off its initially proposed 174-foot-high building (spire included), known as the McKinney Texas Temple, and shrink its overall footprint from around 45,000 square feet to roughly 30,000 square feet.

“We appreciate the efforts of all those involved in working together in good faith to try to produce a compromise solution that will protect the town’s character and zoning laws,” Mayor Henry Lessner said then, “while at the same time allowing the church to construct the temple at its chosen site.”

(Henry Lessner) Fairview, Texas, Mayor Henry Lessner says his town "will deal with" a lawsuit from the church if it occurs.

Latter-day Saint officials, too, seemed to view the matter as settled.

“The church,” spokesperson Sam Penrod said, “understood [the] modifications fully satisfied any concerns previously raised by the Town Council.”

However, the mediation, rare on the part of the church, failed to quell the frustration of residents who argued the building still would be too big for the site, a residential zone.

In the months since the accord, Lessner has repeatedly suggested — in the press and in a town newsletter — that the dispute remains unsettled and that the new designs were unlikely to make it through the town’s approval process.

On Dec. 4, the church’s attorney, Eric Pinker, received a call from the town’s lawyer asking for the Utah-based faith to “significantly” downsize the building yet again.

That is according to a letter Pinker sent to the town’s attorney Jan. 13. In it, the lawyer describes failed attempts to meet with town officials to ensure they had not reneged on their agreement.

Given these events, Pinker wrote, “the church has no confidence that the town will make good on its commitments” and, in the absence of a meeting between the parties, “will likely be forced to defend its rights in court.”

(Shelby Tauber | Special to The Tribune) The lot where a proposed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple may be built in Fairview, Texas, is shown in May 2024. A meetinghouse already sits nearby.

Two weeks later, Pinker sent the mayor and planning manager a notice of intent to sue.

When asked if the town planned to fight the lawsuit should it materialize, Lessner said that “we will deal with that if it occurs,” adding that the town’s Zoning Defense Fund continues to receive contributions from around the world.

The church has recently faced stiff opposition to its proposed temple projects in a number of towns across the country, including in Cody, Wyoming, which it sued in 2023. Soon after, officials there issued a building permit for the sacred edifice.

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.