After a three-hour public hearing Thursday night, a Texas town’s planning and zoning commission unanimously voted to approve the concessions offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for construction of a smaller temple.
But the 7-0 vote set new conditions sure to be discussed Tuesday when the Fairview Town Council considers the church’s request for a conditional use permit to build one of its most sacred edifices in the town.
The commission recommended that the town council require the church to:
- Reduce the steeple height to 68 feet, 3 inches, the same height as the church’s meetinghouse next to the proposed temple site.
- Change the temple’s name from the McKinney Texas Temple to the Fairview Texas Temple.
- Shut off the temple’s exterior lighting on Sundays, Mondays and holidays, when the temple is closed, and every other night between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
The commission and council rejected the original plans for the temple last year, when the church proposed a two-story temple with a steeple of 174 feet. The new application is based on a mediated settlement reached in November by church representatives and town leaders. It seeks permission to build a one-story temple with a steeple rising to 120 feet.
“We appreciate the opportunity to share our revised temple plans, which reflect the terms of the mediated agreement,” church spokeswoman Melissa McKneely said in a statement provided to the Deseret News. “The adjustments in size and height were made in good faith to address local concerns and demonstrate our desire to be respectful neighbors.
“We believe the temple will be a meaningful addition to Fairview. We are grateful for the legal protections that ensure the free exercise of religion and look forward to being part of this growing community.”
The commission listened to 33 people during the public hearing, with 20 speaking in support of the temple and 13 raising concerns about the height of the steeple and the exterior lighting.
Commission staff said the church’s lighting proposal complied with all Fairview ordinances.
At one stage, the church had proposed turning off the temple’s lights at night, but that offer was withdrawn in the new application due to the other concessions the town required in the non-binding settlement reached in November, said Paul McCracken of Kinley-Horne, an engineering and design consulting firm representing the church.
McCracken said reducing the size of the temple and the height of the steeple created a substantial burden for the church, which needs a temple with four instruction rooms to serve a growing Latter-day Saint population in the region. The church agreed to accept that burden in its new application, which calls for two instruction rooms.
He also said the church was not open to changing the name of the temple. The church has one congregation in Fairview and about 10 in McKinney.
McCracken argued that there are no provisions for churches in Fairview’s zoning ordinances, so any conditional use permit for a church or temple requires the commission and council to customize a new, site-specific district.
The proposed temple “fits the site,” McCracken said. “It fits the location. ... To say that it’s not a proper application or that it’s not administering the code properly because it doesn’t fit the requirements of a single-family home is not why we’re here tonight. It’s a conditional use permit zoning district, its own new zoning district.”
Opponents who spoke continued to insist that the temple should be held to the 35-foot roof limitation for single-family homes, but lighting was a major part of Thursday’s discussions.
“I think all of us agree that leaving the lights on all night is unacceptable,” commission chair John Adler said before the vote.
The commission’s new conditions also prohibits any light fixture that would emit light beyond the temple’s horizontal plane and sets a color temperature limit of 3000 Kelvin.
Church representatives told the commission that people begin to arrive at the temple at 5 a.m. on days it is open and the first sessions begin at 6 a.m. The final session begins at 10 pm and lets out at 11 p.m., when the commission set the exterior lights must be extinguished.
Marsha Barlow, a Fairview resident who spoke against the application, said she believed the church could build a beautiful functional temple that still met Fairvew’s zoning ordinances.
Doris James, a 24-year Fairview resident who is a church member and a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, spoke in support of the new application.
“It’s my professional opinion that with the revisions currently submitted for the temple, the plan is perfection,” she said. “Perfect in size, perfect in scale, perfect in symmetry, and in my personal opinion, perfect for Fairview.”
