Fairview Mayor asks LDS Church to reconsider temple height as construction continues

More than a year after heated town meetings over the proposed temple, Fairview’s mayor says the controversy is still dividing residents.

Construction is underway on the controversial Fairview Texas Temple, but debate over the height of its steeple is far from over.

Behind a construction fence on Stacy Road in Fairview, crews are already working on the future temple site. Renderings of the planned building are hanging from the fence, towering over a smaller existing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building next door.

The project sparked months of emotional town hall meetings in 2024 and 2025, with much of the debate centered on the height of the temple’s steeple.

“This temple will set a new height precedent for Fairview, forever altering the established rural character,” one resident said during a council meeting.

The original proposal called for a 174-foot steeple. The church later reduced the height to 120 feet before the town approved the project in April 2025.

Now, Fairview Mayor John Hubbard is making one more request to church leadership.

“It’s really over,” Hubbard said.

But Hubbard says the controversy still follows him around town.

“A lot of people in the town feel like it’s been forced on them, this temple,” Hubbard said. “That it doesn’t fit and it really, really doesn’t fit.”

For comparison, Fairview Town Hall stands five stories tall at about 65 feet, meaning the approved steeple would be nearly double its height.

In a new letter to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hubbard asked the church to voluntarily reconsider the steeple height again, pointing to newer temples built with shorter or no steeples.

In the letter, Hubbard referenced the church’s Yorba Linda, California temple, which features a steeple of about 70 feet, and a planned temple in Vienna, Austria that does not include a steeple.

Hubbard wrote that while the church has the legal right to move forward under the approved permit, a voluntary reduction could help heal lingering tensions in the community.

He says he worries the years-long fight over the project could leave a lasting divide in Fairview.

“Instead of being a symbol of hope and warmth or symbol of peace, it’s going to become a reminder of the forcefulness that was behind that,” Hubbard said.

With construction moving forward, Hubbard says he hopes one final request for compromise could help the town move on.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not responded to Hubbard’s latest request or NBC 5’s request for comment.

Construction on the temple is continuing under the town-approved permit.