https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/fairview-faces-legal-threat-as-p-z-votes-down-proposed-mormon-temple-design-theyre-being-a-bully/


FAIRVIEW – Rose Oswald's home in Fairview faces land where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints plans to build a temple.

"This is in my front yard essentially," Oswald said, looking out at the lot.

Designs show the proposed building would be nearly twice the size of the town hall with a 173-foot steeple as tall as 16-story building.

It's far too big, neighbors say, for this small residential town.

"Never could I have imaged that we would consider putting a building of that size on that lot," Oswald said.

At a packed meeting Thursday night, a church spokesperson told the town's Planning and Zoning Committee that every aspect of the temple's design serves a religious purpose with symbols like the steeple, meant to draw the eye upwards to heaven.

The committee, though, sided with neighbors and voted to recommend council members reject the proposal. Mayor Henry Lessner said, that's exactly what he plans to do.

"I can only speak for myself. I will never approve that," he said. "It is just grossly out of proportion to everything around there."

The city says it's received 350 messages from Fairview residents about the proposal. The vast majority, 87% of them, expressed opposition to the temple's design.

It's received more than twice as many from non-residents, with 89% of those messages in favor of it.

The church, widely known as the Mormon Church, has faced similar disputes in other cities amid a boom in construction. Last year, it sued the town of Cody, Wyoming to get a temple built.

The mayor says the church's local attorney has threatened it'd sue Fairview too.

"They're an extraordinarily wealthy religion. We're a little town in North Texas…" he said. "They're being a bully in a way."

The church told CBS News it is confident legal precedence supports construction of its temple in Fairview.

Neighbors, meanwhile, have organized to fight it.

"It's a David and Goliath story. And we're the David," said Lisa Foradori, which lives nearby. "Building a ginormous 16-story church in a residential area just isn't keeping it country."

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The Mormon church recently did this in Cody, Wyoming but the city planner is Mormon and determined the steeple height is exempt from city ordinance height restrictions. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/06/13/77-foot-steeple-for-mormon-temple-in-cody-not-part-of-roof-doesnt-violate-30-foot-limit-city-planner-says/ The city council opposed the height exemptions but the Mormon church threatened the city with litigation to get their way. https://www.codyenterprise.com/news/local/article_42647158-355b-11ee-b6e8-f3e1726f834b.html

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The Mormon church is doing this again right now in Lone Mountain, Nevada where the spire will sit 216 feet high above the surrounding homes.

Home lots are restricted by the Interlocal Agreement between the City of Las Vegas and Clark County to a single-family home no taller than two stories, yet the mormons are again using lawfare to force through an eyesore spire 216 feet tall in the middle of a residential area.

The balloon circled in red is the height of the spire: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13334769/mormon-temple-Lone-Mountain-Nevada-town-anger-height.html

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It's odd they're wasting their resources pushing temple spires of absurd heights on neighborhoods and claiming the spire of the building is essential to their doctrine when some Mormon temples do not even have a spire... Mesa, AZ Mormon temple Hong Kong Mormon temple

Mormons have long enjoyed the common thought by others that they're "Good neighbors" but forcing this down communities' throats via lawfare and threats of bankrupting the city coffers seems misplaced...

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And then there's these two conflicting and wild statements from Mormon members in Fairview...

So the Mormons are pulling a Scientology by doing lawfare to get their way?

Why should we care that a bunch of whiny losers are upset about what someone is doing with their private property?

Exactly.

If they offered to put a HAM repeater up there I would say that's ok then...a little something for the community.

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So a giant lightning rod? Cool!

That is almost freakishly tall.. I would ask that is get a flashing red light like a cell phone tower.

Cant speak to the Law, but they aren't keeping it Country with this.

I do like their gigantic temples in large cities; used to think the one in Oakland when I was a kid looked badass.

Getting upset about church steeples on the skyline seems a bit excessive.

Growing up around small towns, the churches downtown were always the tallest buildings around.

May the Almighty send an electrifying message to his flock.

Is there an existing local ordinance that prohibits buildings over "X" feet tall?

If there isn't then fuck off.

so the locals don’t want it and Mormons not from there are for it.

I equate Mormons with gypsies.

As a midget you are offended by tall buildings?

Yeah, 20 or 30 feet. Not hundreds.

Go figure.

People don’t care about property rights until you tell them what to do on their property.

Guarantee there would be less pushback if it were mosque minarets.

There needs to be grand buildings in order to give the illusion of substance to the mormon religion.

City ordinance limits building height to 35'.

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Think of them as community lightning rods.

Wait until it's Islamic types and you're not allowed to complain.

Well there's an existing planning and zoning committee that can reject it...so yeah, they could likely pick a propety in unincorporated Collin County  just a few miles to the east and be free to do as they wish. But that wouldn't align with their real intention to do whatever the fuck they want.

Thank God for government.

Fairview hasn't been country in a long time. It's a suburb of Dallas surrounded by more suburbs of Dallas.

Lawfair?  Is that like a law school recruiting event?

The proposed spired here are pretty far outside normal 'tall church' experience.

This is a 175' lighthouse in a residential area, to provide some sense of scale of how a 173'-216' tall church spire would dominate the landscape.

It would become the defining visual characteristic of the town.

Neither is Lone Mountain.  It's an upper-middle class, inside the beltway suburb of Vegas.

Does the town have a defining visual characteristic now?

Or is it the blandest suburban town imaginable?

You'd think that a church would want to be good members of a community and work within the existing building height restrictions.

Fairview is a little town.  They do not have the finances for a protracted legal battle against a billion dollar enterprise like the LDS church.

Tax that fucker out of existence. Call the FAA about the height. Get the enviro nazis involved on a threatened habitat violation. Surely the EPA (Air Control) will see the wind speed averages drop post construction. YEARS of modeling will be needed to know for SURE.

Isnt above 200 in need of a beacon?

Our ham guy around here , his personal tower is 199 ft .

The LDS church should look at the undeveloped land up around Farmersville.  There is a Muslim cemetery up there that needs neighbors.

That's pretty short, but if so I don't see where the problem is coming in.

Don't give them a building permit.

Unless they have already given exceptions to other organizations, then they're going to have trouble.

The community should band together and build an absolutely GIANT cock and balls upright next to it.

Haha, the golden Angel Moroni 200ft in the air. It's going to be like the eye of Sauron up there keeping the town safe from Gadianton robbers and masturbation

I guess I fail to see the need for such a high object.  I guess, if it is their property, they can do with it as they wish.  Hopefully they do not upset someone enough that a local opposed vandal would set the building on fire while it was being constructed - but I guess that is the chance you take when you take actions that your neighbors believe harm your neighbors and their community.

They can go to hell.

This is one of my projects. I'll be sure to mention their concern at Friday's AOC meeting.

Would you like me to have Bob call you?

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This is only a mile from my house. Right across the street from the site is a nice, very large Allen, TX, neighborhood.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Seems that the Mormons have developed a “fuck you” attitude.

Because there are building codes for a reason. It's why they can't build a lead smelter next to a school.

There is absolutely nothing in the building code prohibiting a lead smelter next to a school.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

ETA: What does a lead smelter have to do with the height of a church, anyway?

Will God love them more if their steeple is really tall?

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What is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

* A structure that will most certainly be the most attractive building in the area
* A place where people gather to worship our Savior, Jesus Christ

They make every area a better place.

Fairview isn't big, but it's also not rural. Hell, this thing is a couple miles away.

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