Church renames Texas temple as town considers permit 

The proposed McKinney Texas Temple got a new name Monday, the eve of a vote by the Fairview Town Council on whether to approve an application for a permit submitted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The First Presidency announced Monday afternoon that the temple will be renamed the Fairview Texas Temple.

The town council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. CDT and is expected to vote on the church’s application for a conditional use permit.

President Russell M. Nelson announced plans for a temple in Prosper, Texas, in October 2022. The church announced in December 2023 that the location would be adjacent to the Latter-day Saint meetinghouse at 651 E. Stacy Road in Fairview.

The Fairview Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 on Thursday to approve the conditional use permit, but the commissioners attached several conditions.

One was that the temple be renamed for Fairview.

“You would never hear McDonald’s call themselves Sonic. That’s just not OK,” commission member Lakia Works said.

The commission also said it would require the church to:

• Reduce the steeple height to 68 feet, 3 inches, the same height as the church’s meetinghouse next to the proposed temple site.
• Shut off the temple’s exterior lighting on Sundays, Mondays and holidays, when the temple is closed, and every other night between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
• Limit the temple’s light fixtures to emit no light beyond the temple’s horizontal plane and below a color temperature limit of 3000 Kelvin. The area’s zoning allows for a temperature up to 4000 Kelvin.

The church has not said whether it will accept the planning commission’s conditions. The town council is not required to accept the commission’s recommendations.

The church and the town have been negotiating for a year over the temple’s size and lighting. A potential name change also was batted around during prior meetings.

The church originally submitted plans for a two-story temple with four instruction rooms, a steeple of nearly 174 feet and 45,375 square feet of space. The planning commission and town council rejected that plan.

Town leaders and church officials reached a settlement in November during mediation. The church submitted a new application last month for a one-story temple with two instruction rooms, a steeple of 120 feet and 30,742 square feet.

The steeple ranges from 5.5 inches at its base to 3.5 inches at the top and would act both as a symbol of reaching toward heaven and as a lightning rod.

To watch Tuesday’s special town council meeting, click here.

To learn more about the church’s application, click here.

Texas is home to more than 390,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 750 congregations.

The Fairview temple is the 10th temple announced, under construction or in operation in Texas.

Other temples in Texas include the Austin Texas Temple, Dallas Texas Temple, El Paso Texas Temple, Fort Worth Texas Temple, Houston Texas Temple, Houston Texas South Temple, Lubbock Texas Temple, McAllen Texas Temple, and San Antonio Texas Temple.