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 McKneely, 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.
Why is the settlement now in question?
But Fairview officials waffled publicly. Mayor Henry Lessner called the settlement an “initial compromise” in a letter announcing it to residents, then said at a Dec. 3 town meeting that negotiations were only in the first inning. Town officials also characterized the church as a bully during the meeting and asked residents to call church headquarters to ask for a still smaller temple, according to news reports.
A town representative did just that the following day. According to a letter from a church attorney, an attorney for the town called him and asked for the church to accept a temple significantly smaller than the one the sides agreed to in mediation. Mayor Lessner then was quoted in the December town newsletter as saying, “through our attorneys, we have told (the church) that there is a good chance that the new design with the 120-foot tower will not be accepted.”
On Dec. 20, the sides held a videoconference. According to the church attorney’s letter, Lessner told church representatives that while he and the mayor pro tem intended to vote for mediated settlement, they did not know how others would vote in wake of negative reaction from some residents.
What will the church do next?
Church officials planned to file their new application for the smaller temple on Jan. 13, but they became uncertain it would be accepted because of statements by the mayor and other town officials, according to the church attorney’s letter.
“In light of the foregoing circumstances, the church has no confidence that the town will make good on its commitments as set forth in the memorandum,” the church attorney stated. “The church is further concerned that proceeding as though the town will make good on its commitments will simply prejudice the church’s legal rights. Accordingly, the church will not submit an amended or new conditional use permit application today.”
McKneely, the temple spokeswoman, said the church had attempted to negotiate in good faith to find common ground while protecting the rights of religious freedom for local members of the church.
“The church understood these modifications fully satisfied any concerns previously raised by the town council,” she stated.
Attorneys representing the church asked Fairview officials to allow the church representatives to meet with each town councilmember individually. According to the church attorney, town officials said they would share the invitation with the councilmembers but did not expect all to agree.
“If town officials continue to be unwilling to discuss the status of the agreement made in mediation,” McKneely stated, “the next step is to ask a court to review local, state and federal laws regarding the town’s process of denying the church’s original proposal in August 2024 to build a temple in Fairview, Texas.”
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,” McKneely 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.
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.
New Georgia RLUIPA case
The Justice Department noted in the March 2024 letter that it had opened over 155 formal investigations and filed nearly 30 lawsuits related to RLUIPA’s land-use provisions.
It has continued to enforce those provisions. The department filed another lawsuit against a city on Dec. 16, when it alleged that the City of Brunswick, Georgia, violated RLUIPA by interfering with land owned by the United Methodist Church. The church runs The Well, a faith-based resource center for people experiencing homelessness on its land. The city has blamed the center for what the DOJ characterized as unrelated criminal activity in Brunswick, according to a DOJ news release.
“Federal law protects the right of religious groups such as The Well to use their land to help others,” said Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement. “The division will continue to vindicate the rights of groups to exercise their religion and fight local land-use laws that unlawfully restrict those rights.”
The DOJ has supported RLUIPA through both recent Republican and Democratic administrations.
The Justice Department announced its Place to Worship Initiative in June 2018. The initiative focused on RLUIPA’s provisions that protect the rights of houses of worship and other religious institutions to worship on their land.