McKinney Texas Temple – Texas town not standing by settlement
McKinney Texas Temple: The town of Fairview and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints negotiated a smaller temple in November. The agreement may be unraveling and the church may seek legal remedy
The settlement that cleared the way for the construction of a temple in a Texas town by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appears to be unraveling, according to statements by both sides.
Now, the future of the McKinney Texas Temple may be headed to the courts if the agreement the town and the church reached in mediation in November doesn’t hold, a local church spokeswoman said in a new statement released Monday.
Leaders in Fairview, Texas, denied the church’s original building application in August, after some residents complained the proposed temple was too large. The town and church forged a settlement in mediation after the church voluntarily agreed to reduce the size of the temple, dropping it from 44,000 square feet to 29,960 and from two stories to one. Church leaders also reduced the height of the proposed steeple from 173 feet.
“Despite imposing a substantial burden on the church’s exercise and practice of religion, the church offered to make significant compromises, including reducing both the size of the temple by 10,000 square feet and reducing the height of the steeple to 120 feet,” the spokeswoman for the temple, Melissa McNeely, said in a statement.
The mayor and town councilmembers unanimously agreed to approve the smaller temple, and the church began to prepare a new application.
McKinney Texas Temple
Why the church believes it has the right to build the temple
Temples are sacred, holy places for Latter-day Saints, who consider them to be houses of the Lord. Church officials have said from the beginning that federal and state religious liberty laws and Fairview zoning laws give the church the right to build the temple at the size proposed in its original application.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seeks to be a good neighbor and has an extensive track record of successfully building temples that have been welcomed in more than 200 communities around the world, including seven in Texas,” McNeely said in her statement. “These places of worship are always well maintained, feature beautiful landscaping and symbolize faith and peace.”
The proposed location of the temple is on a four-lane highway directly across the street from businesses in a commercial zone in Allen, Texas.
Read More – Jill Stein Net Worth
McKinney Texas Temple
The Fairview side of the road is known as “church row” because four churches in a row line the street. Church representatives and attorneys have repeatedly noted that houses of worship traditionally are located in residential zones in the same way schools are. Fairview’s zoning ordinances uphold that practice, church representatives say.
Legally, the church says the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law known as RLUIPA bar local governments from imposing unreasonable land-use requirements on people of faith building places of worship.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent an official letter to state, county and municipal officials across the nation in March 2024, reminding them that, among other things, “RLUIPA prohibits governments from imposing or implementing land use regulations that ‘unreasonably limit’ religious assemblies, institutions or structures within a jurisdiction.”
The letter noted that, “While zoning is primarily a local matter, where it conflicts with federal civil rights laws such as the Fair Housing Act or RLUIPA, federal law takes precedence.”
Fairview officials have maintained that their zoning ordinances give them latitude to enforce limits on the church.
Read More – Nicholas Galitzine Net Worth
