Permit Denied for McKinney Temple

[Amulek]

Non-update update: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240916539520/en/Town-of-Fairview-Texas-Tells-LDS-Church-“Don’t-Mess-with-Our-Community”

Quote

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. [...] 

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.”

So much for the familiar phrase "everything is bigger in Texas." Maybe we could just add a footnote to that: Everything is bigger in Texas.*

 

*Not valid in Fairview.

 

[bluebell]

1 hour ago, Amulek said:

Non-update update: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240916539520/en/Town-of-Fairview-Texas-Tells-LDS-Church-“Don’t-Mess-with-Our-Community”

So much for the familiar phrase "everything is bigger in Texas." Maybe we could just add a footnote to that: Everything is bigger in Texas.*

 

*Not valid in Fairview.

 

Do they not build religious buildings in residential zoned areas in texas?  It's weird to think of them as a commercial building.

[Amulek]

20 hours ago, bluebell said:

Do they not build religious buildings in residential zoned areas in texas?  It's weird to think of them as a commercial building.

Oh, they've got churches all over the place here in Texas. In fact, there's been a church in pretty much every neighborhood I have ever lived in.

What the mayor is pushing is this idea that there is something of a dividing line between the commercial and residential sides of town. On the East side of Highway 5 you've got the residential district and on the West side you've got the commercial district. (Note: There are businesses on the East side of town, but admittedly there aren't a lot of them.)

The city doesn't want to have big buildings on the East side of town (since it's designed to be residential), so they have said they would consider accommodating the building height if the church were to move it to a commercial zone instead - though, technically, there is still a height restriction in their commercial district, so we would still have to get an exemption for the proposed height even if we agreed to move it there.

From everything I've seen the church appears to be operating within their rights, so I don't think they will back down here. I'm not running the church obviously (thankfully), so I supposed you never know. But if neither side wants to bend, then I recon the next step will be litigation. Will keep everyone updated as things progress.