Good idea -- bad process.
That's the attitude of the Salt Lake City Council, which was taken aback by an announcement made jointly by LDS Church leaders and Mayor Deedee Corradini Tuesday regarding a proposal to close Main Street between South Temple and North Temple.Even though the city's administration had been working with the church on the proposal for some time, council members, who will make the ultimate decision on the project's approval, were caught cold by the announcement.
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And they weren't happy about it.
"Are we so insignificant that we couldn't be notified?" asked Councilwoman Joanne Milner.
"I'm a little unnerved by the fact that I haven't been briefed and I'm getting calls from the news media," Councilwoman Deeda Seed said.
Council members blasted Corradini in a meeting Tuesday for not at least giving them a courtesy call informing them of what she was planning to do. Corradini's response: It's simply a separation-of-powers issue. The mayor plans things, and the council approves them.
"There are always going to be people who find fault with things," she said.
Relations between Corradini and this council have never been all that great, and the latest incident, echoing the Gateway intermodal transportation hub debacle some months ago, doesn't help matters any. Council members say Corradini is grandstanding at the expense of her council in a municipal election year and that she's trying to take credit for an idea that wasn't hers to begin with.
The idea of closing part of Main Street for a pedestrian walkway has been around since 1962. Its latest incarnation was two years ago when the council proposed closing a two-block stretch.
While Corradini has taken a visible role in the latest proposal, she has not claimed the idea was hers.
The proposal, which would create a two-block church campus by connecting Temple Square and the church's administration block, has yet to go through the community council/Transportation Advisory Board/Planning Commission/City Council approval process. Church leaders hope to have that completed by this spring.
They also plan to add 650 stalls to their underground parking garage under the street.
As proposed, the 2.03 acres of street will be converted to gardens, a reflecting pool, walkways and benches. At least part of the wall surrounding Temple Square would be taken down to open up the space, though probably not all of it because of security concerns, said LDS Presiding Bishop H. David Burton.
The city, not the church, has owned the street basically from the time Mormon pioneers first entered the valley in 1847. Upon arriving, Brigham Young immediately laid out city blocks and streets, entering Main Street as part of the original plat -- Plat A, according to city Planning Director William Wright.
Especially now, with Main Street south of South Temple having restricted lanes because of the light-rail tracks now in place, the block is not a major artery.
Traffic consultant Steven Meyer from the Sear-Brown Group says closing the block should have minimal effect on traffic, though his final report has yet to be released.
Main Street businesses opposed previous proposals to close Main Street because they thought it would hurt business, but they generally favor the current proposal partially because Main Street is more oriented toward pedestrians anyway and because the church campus would create an attraction for visitors who would then shop in downtown stores.
"This will create a place, and what makes uniqueness is place," said city Community and Economic Development Director Stuart Reid.