Unwanted  tags inserted before and after a rendered $item First time creating a custom template for a field. 

I've created the field--field_phone_number.tpl.php and know it's working.

I'm trying to make it so when a user enters a phone number, it displays as a link with the "tel:" prefix so that readers can click the link on their mobile phones to call directly. 

Here's what I have:

&lt;div class="&lt;?php print $classes; ?&gt;"&lt;?php print $attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
  &lt;?php if (!$label_hidden): ?&gt;
    &lt;div class="field-label"&lt;?php print $title_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;?php print $label ?&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
  &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="field-items"&lt;?php print $content_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
    &lt;?php foreach ($items as $delta =&gt; $item): ?&gt;
      &lt;div class="field-item &lt;?php print $delta % 2 ? 'odd' : 'even'; ?&gt;"&lt;?php print $item_attributes[$delta]; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;a href="tel:&lt;?php print render($item); ?&gt;"&gt;&lt;?php print render($item); ?&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    &lt;?php endforeach; ?&gt;
  &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;


Only problem is that it actually prints out something like 

&lt;a href="tel:&lt;p&gt;3035551212&lt;/p&gt;"&gt;3035551212&lt;/a&gt;


Where are those &lt;p&gt; tags coming from? 

I see many posts around about those tags coming from WYSIWYG editors and the like, but I'm not using one of those. I've also seen a suggestion that this is related to a default line-break converter, which I'd rather not turn off.
There can be some better solution of this question but as you are facing of this extra html tag issue inside href, here is solution for this. 

&lt;div class="&lt;?php print $classes; ?&gt;"&lt;?php print $attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
  &lt;?php if (!$label_hidden): ?&gt;
    &lt;div class="field-label"&lt;?php print $title_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;?php print $label ?&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
  &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="field-items"&lt;?php print $content_attributes; ?&gt;&gt;
    &lt;?php foreach ($items as $delta =&gt; $item): 
    $phone_link_data = render($item); 
    $phone_link = strip_tags(html_entity_decode($phone_link_data));
    ?&gt;
      &lt;div class="field-item &lt;?php print $delta % 2 ? 'odd' : 'even'; ?&gt;"&lt;?php print $item_attributes[$delta]; ?&gt;&gt;&lt;a href="tel:&lt;?php print $phone_link; ?&gt;"&gt;&lt;?php print render($item); ?&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    &lt;?php endforeach; ?&gt;
  &lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;