Signs displayed at the construction zone of the Fairview Texas Temple by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 in Fairview.
Fairview’s town leaders are launching a public awareness campaign in opposition to the height of the disputed temple under construction by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the hopes the church will voluntarily lower the height of its spire.
The town’s latest efforts against the Fairview Texas Temple’s size comes over a year after its council approved a permit for a 120-foot-tall spire. It initially denied a permit for a temple reaching more than 170 feet tall. After threats of a lawsuit from the church, mediation and a lawsuit from residents, construction began on the temple earlier this year.
The dispute over zoning rules and religious freedom has sowed division between the church and town for years. The town’s campaign reinforces lingering opposition and reveals continued conflict in Fairview.
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“My church, through this whole process, has done nothing but follow the law,” said church member and Fairview resident Nikki Butler. “To have more contention stewed up in a campaign against our church for a place of worship, it feels very confusing and disheartening.”
Some of Fairview’s 11,000 residents say the large building will disrupt their claim to a small-town identity in Collin County, 30 miles north of Dallas. Church members say they need another temple to accommodate a growing congregation in North Texas, which currently has only one temple operating in Dallas. Another is under construction near Fort Worth.
A rendering of the Fairview Texas Temple, 120-feet tall and about 30,000-square-feet large. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints submitted plans for this version, a compromise from the original plan, to the town of Fairview, Texas, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
Fairview Mayor John Hubbard said he hopes a marketing campaign will convey to the church and its top leadership that the height is not popular, even if approved by the council.
“We feel like we’ve been bullied,” Hubbard said. “The council members that voted for the temple height felt like they had no other choice because they were going to get litigated and sued and it would bankrupt the town.”
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In a May letter responding to the mayor’s request that the church lower the height of the temple, the executive director of the church’s temple department wrote the church is unable to agree to the town’s request and asked the town “to honor its commitment to support the approved design.”
The town considered the marketing campaign at a council meeting Tuesday night. A church spokesperson declined to comment on the town’s efforts Wednesday.
David Margulies, president of Margulies Communications Group, has been hired to assist the town with the campaign, which is planned to include a website, campaign signs, creative services and potential events or demonstrations.
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The campaign intends to petition the church to lower the spire’s height voluntarily, Margulies said, and comes from citizens’ concerns.
“It’s not to attack the church, it’s not to get in a big fight,” he said. “It’s just to say, ‘do the right thing.’”
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Jason Jones, a Fairview resident and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said it’s difficult and disappointing to see the resurgence of opposition to the temple height.
“We’ve been very diligent at being good neighbors, at following the prescribed legal procedure,” he said. The temple under construction is “a significantly compromised size,” he said, and “we feel like we’ve made a massive concession.”
Hubbard said the town will use up to $18,000 from a fund created in 2024 in anticipation of a lawsuit from the church to pay for the campaign. The fund, meant to help protect the town’s zoning ordinances, raised over $20,000 in total, according to the mayor.
“It’s painful to see our town spend money against its own citizens and their own desired place of worship,” Jones said. He believes the temple’s height is an issue of religious freedom.
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The campaign is not against the temple or the LDS faith, Hubbard said, but just asks the church to reconsider the building’s size.
“We’re not singling them out. We’re not discriminating against them,” Hubbard said. “We want the temple to be here. We just want them to consider lowering the steeple.”
The mayor cited shorter temples across the country belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is asking they make similar concessions to the height of the Fairview temple.
“Church buildings are big and they’re beautiful and they make you look forward and upward,” Butler said. “That’s all we’re asking for, too, is a place to worship and a steeple that we can look up to and see the Lord.”
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The campaign’s platform and website could be expanded to other town issues in the future, Hubbard said.
“The church has every right to build it at 120 feet,” Hubbard said. “But we just want them to see what an impact it’s going to have on our community.”
The temple’s construction is currently underway and will take around three years to complete, according to church leaders.
Email tips on all things Collin County to lilly.kersh@dallasnews.com.