Town of Fairview Texas Tells LDS Church: “Don’t Mess with Our Community”
FAIRVIEW, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Town of Fairview, Texas announced today that it will stand firm in its opposition to plans by the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints’ proposal to build the 45,000 square foot temple at 65 feet high with a 173-foot spire that would tower over homes in an area zoned for residential construction. The plans were voted down unanimously by the City Council after a four-hour council meeting.
Fairview has become the latest in a string of communities trying to stand up to the powerful and wealthy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
Fairview is not alone in what has become a trend of the LDS Church trying to impose its will on communities. The Church has been increasing its efforts to build more temples generating intense resistance from people in places like Bakersfield, California; Lone Mountain, Nevada; Cody, Wyoming; Heber Valley, Utah; and Tooele, Utah.
“We have heard from numerous groups around the country protesting over the LDS organization’s use of its vast wealth to pressure smaller communities—at times threatening to bankrupt them—to force zoning changes that would allow gigantic buildings in residential areas,” said Mayor Henry Lessner.
“The proposed temple is twice the size of our town hall, and with the spire, it reaches a height of 174 feet – taller than our water towers,” says Mayor Lessner. “At 174 feet, the Church would be the tallest structure in Fairview.”
“There is precedent for the church to take local concerns into account regarding how a temple fits within the community. For example, the Paris, France Temple was built without a steeple or tower, as were temples in Cardston, Alberta; Mesa, Arizona and Laie, Hawaii.”
“In France, we see the kind of respect for local concerns that we had hoped to see in Fairview,” said Mayor Lessner.
“We spent a lot of time discussing with local authorities and government architects because it is so close to the monuments,” said Bishop Gérald Caussé, the LDS Church’s presiding bishop, during the Paris temple’s dedication. “There are a number of constraints that we have, the code that we have to respect. …But in the end, it is only good because it makes for a temple that everybody accepts and recognizes as theirs.”
Recently, in Tooele, Utah the church changed plans for a temple and residential development after community objections. The proposed site for the Tooele temple was moved a few miles north of the original site and the temple name changed to the Deseret Peak Temple.
“All we are asking for is the same consideration the church showed to the French and residents of Tooele for our Fairview community,” said Mayor Lessner.
“Their message to us is that fighting this gigantic building proposed for Fairview is a waste of our time,” said Lessner.
The irony here is that Fairview has eight churches in the community of 11,000, one of which is an existing LDS meeting house welcomed into the community a decade ago. That LDS place of worship is already the tallest building in the residential neighborhood. Despite the 35’ height restriction in this residential area, the Town has made several exceptions for Churches including the 68-foot height of the existing meeting house. Now the LDS wants to force Fairview to accept a temple roughly 16 stories high.
There is no opposition to the temple itself – it’s the massive size and scale dwarfing a neighborhood where many families have chosen to live with reasonable zoning regulations seemingly dismissed as meaningless by the Church.
Fairview officials hope that they can work out an agreement with the LDS church to either scale down the current plans to fit in the neighborhood or move the temple to a location in the portion of the town zoned for commercial use.
“We want to be good neighbors,” said Mayor Lessner. “But our community will not be intimidated or bullied. The familiar phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” includes Fairview.”
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