The city of Fairview calls for mediation on controversial LDS temple plans

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – The mayor of Fairview, Texas recently announced in a letter to Fairview residents that the city is entering non-binding mediation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In this letter, Mayor Henry Lessner also states that the City Council has approved a “Zoning Defense Fund” to “protect the city if a lawsuit arises.”

This comes after a public meeting was held to discuss the potential temple to be located in Fairview, where the conditional use permit was denied.

The proposed temple in the McKinney area would affect most Latter-day Saint Church members in East Texas, as it would be their assigned temple in which they participate in ordinances considered sacred within the Church. Currently, members of the East Texas Church perform those ordinances in the Dallas Temple.

The Church argued that temple engineers and architects complied with all city ordinances, and that both federal and state laws allow places of worship to be built at the proposed heights.

Mayor Lessner stated in an interview Thursday that they were working with the church, but that the building was too large for the residential area for which it was intended.

“The problem is and was our zoning laws,” Lessner said. “It’s 35 feet. We’ve essentially already allowed them to double up and go up to 28 yards.

They went up to 65 feet high on their meeting house, and we are willing to allow this to happen again. But there’s a point where big is big and we don’t want to get any bigger.”

The main goal of the upcoming mediation is to try to find a middle group with which the two groups can work together.

Lessner says both sides have been strong in their positions on the temple, but they hope this meeting breaks through and finds a way to make this work.

“I suspect it will be a very difficult type of meeting,” Lessner said. “I don’t want to speculate about what’s going to happen, because who knows?

I don’t know what they’re thinking about. It could be a very short meeting, but I hope not.”

Lessner said he looks forward to a resolution.

“I’m hoping that we can do things to accommodate them in that location, or somehow help them find a place nearby,” Lessner said.

KLTV also contacted the church for comment on the upcoming meeting.

“The Church looks forward to meeting with City representatives and working with them on ways to address community concerns while protecting the Church’s religious freedom rights,” said Melissa McKneely, communications director the Dallas East Coordinating Council. for the Church.

The meeting will take place on November 18.