Less than one month later, a group of town residents has now filed an appeal that asks their council to reverse its decision and requests councilors seek an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office.
By , Religion Reporter
The group known as Fairview United described the town council's 5-2 vote to approve the permit application for a temple with a 120-foot spire as a "procedural failure," per a statement obtained by Chron on Wednesday.
"If this decision stands, it sets a dangerous precedent, allowing developers to bypass public opposition and jam oversized structures into neighborhoods without proper accountability," the statement reads. "This is our final opportunity to uphold Fairview's zoning laws and protect our residential community."
LDS members, commonly referred to as Mormons (though they disapprove of the term as derogatory), already run a church called a "meetinghouse" in the town of 11,000 souls. But LDS leaders from DFW and their religious headquarters in Salt Lake City have been trying to build a temple there to provide sacred ceremonies, including weddings, to a growing membership across the state.
Fairview residents, including some council members, have protested against the temple project out of concerns that it could draw droves of traffic and tourists, as well as obstruct skyward views and potentially lower the town's property values. Critics said the council only voted to approve the permit after the LDS Church threatened to file a suit against the town.
"We need to have healing. We need a resolution to this problem," Fairview Mayor John Hubbard told Chron on Thursday. "We need to get a decision and just sing Kumbaya and get over it."
The Appeal
The latest dispute appears to hinge on technical municipal zoning laws. The Dallas Morning News reported that Fairview laws and the Texas local government code require three-fourths of a governing body to approve a proposed zoning change if 20 percent of property owners within 200 feet of the change submit a protest.
That means enough residents could "trigger a supermajority" vote from council members, Hubbard told Chron. In Fairview, a supermajority translates into getting votes from six of seven council members.
The main issue is that Fairview says that property owners of only about 18 percent of the land within 200 feet of the LDS temple's 8.2-acre site protested the permit application, Hubbard said. However, Fairview United argues that property owners of 20 percent of the land protested, and the town miscalculated the count because it included the opinions of individuals who own land that's part of the nearby city of Allen.
Hubbard claimed the town included input from property owners with land in Allen because the state and local government codes don't specify that opinions should only come from individuals who own property in Fairview.
"I support the decision because it was done in a fair and logical way," Hubbard said. "We got there based on the information we had at the time."
Meanwhile, Mark Johnson, an attorney who helped Fairview United submit its appeal to the town's zoning board of adjustment, told the Dallas Morning News that it's not logical to include property owners in Allen in the count.
LDS Church attempts to build temples
Fairview residents, including former mayor Henry Lessner, protested against the LDS Church's original temple plans to build a 44,000-square-foot building with a 173-foot steeple. Lessner told Chron that he wasn't against the church's religious practices, but rather opposed the church constructing the temple in a residential area with a 35-foot height restriction.
After the Fairview council's approval last month, Hubbard told Chron that it was "the threat of a lawsuit" that caused him and other council members to vote in favor of the permit for the temple.
"We are told that the LDS attorneys had the paperwork ready to file a lawsuit if the Council decided last night against the latest version of the temple," Lessner said. "Were they bluffing? I don’t think we could afford to find out." Lessner then stepped down from his post after reaching his term limits.
The LDS Church believes that the push for the temple came from the top. In 2022, Russel M. Nelson, the 100-year-old president of the LDS Church who is considered a prophet among his congregations, announced the building of 18 new temples, including the proposed Fairview temple and others in Florida, Michigan, Mexico, Peru, Nigeria and the Philippines. Nelson has declared more than 100 temples in the last seven years.
Amid backlash, LDS leaders have argued that building a temple in North Texas was a matter of religious freedom, rights and liberties as they deemed the town's response as discriminatory.
Texas is home to more than 390,000 LDS members in more than 750 congregations, according to the church.
Fairview's new mayor weighs in on temple debate
In an interview Thursday, Hubbard said he was one of two Fairview council members to vote against the LDS Church's permit application last month. (Council Member Rich Connelly also voted against the permit.) Hubbard reasoned that he sided with a recommendation the town's planning and zoning committee made in April to approve the permit with conditions, including decreasing the size of the steeple to about 68 feet—the same height as the church's meetinghouse next door.
"We never argued against the temple," Hubbard said. "It was about the size of the temple."
Hubbard served on the town council for five years before being elected to the mayoral position last month. The business lecturer at the University of North Texas at Dallas said he's inherited a unique task of serving a town where one of the most important agenda items has been to approve or deny an LDS Church. Hubbard, who identifies as a non-denominational Christian, said Fairview has about seven churches and estimated about 400 LDS members live there.
The new mayor said he hoped that LDS leaders would take note of the "turbulence" in the town due to the proposed temple project and that they would voluntarily reduce the steeple's height, no matter the outcome of the recently filed appeal.
"It'll be a while before people get over this," Hubbard said.
