Board members of the Downtown Alliance unanimously voted Tuesday morning to endorse Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's proposed solution for the Main Street Plaza controversy.
About three hours later, however, Anderson said he still has reservations about the plan but realizes it is the only option that will heal the community.
Anderson remains wary about giving the city's easement across Main Street Plaza to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"I still don't want to convey the easement," he said following a Tuesday morning press conference with the Sierra Club, which announced it endorses Anderson's re-election bid.
But Anderson said he realizes he has to give up the city's easement. That decision, Anderson said, came only after no one would support his efforts to keep the city's easement. As a leader, Anderson said, he was forced to solve a problem rather than take what he felt was the principled stand.
"That's why (giving away the easement) wasn't my first choice," he said. "I have never wanted to give up the easement."
Dave Nimkin, Anderson's chief of staff, presented the mayor's proposed solution — a land swap that cedes the city's easement to the church in exchange for about two acres of church-owned land in Glendale.
With the Downtown Alliance's approval, city staffers will now turn to the community councils.
"Thank you very much for the support," deputy mayor Rocky Fluhart said. "We hope it goes that easy in the community councils."
The LDS Church also issued a statement Tuesday morning supporting Anderson's compromise.
"While some details are still to be worked out, the church will support the key elements of the proposal when it is formally submitted for public discussion in various community council meetings, the Planning Commission and the Salt Lake City Council," Presiding Bishop H. David Burton said in a written statement. "The church urges the fullest possible public discussion of the proposal and remains optimistic concerning its outcome."
Wednesday city staffers will present the proposal, dubbed "A Turning Point for Peace," to the Rio Grande, Capitol Hill and West Salt Lake (Glendale) community councils. The proposal, now nicely packaged in a brochure complete with cute children on the cover, is basically the same plan Anderson outlined Dec. 16. There are, however, some new details.
For instance, the city has some new ideas about what kind of services will be provided at the Unity Center, which is a key component of the plan. Staffers quickly note the details are still in the early stages and are subject to change.
There will be an expanded Intermountain Heath Care clinic, which could provide dental and mental health care options currently unavailable at IHC's existing free clinic at the Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center. The free care area will also be expanded beyond the 84104 ZIP code. The University of Utah, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund will offer business development tools and entrepreneurial classes.
A legal clinic will provide free legal services and advice run by the U. law school. Early-childhood and infant care will be available from Head Start, Guadalupe Schools and Neighborhood House. After-school, summer, employment and arts-education programs will be run by YouthCity & Global Artways. Fitness and Recreation facilities, English language proficiency classes will be by Guadalupe Schools, while technology education and training will be from Intel Corp.
Anderson's proposed property-swap calls for a 2.1-acre parcel owned by the LDS Church to be given to the city in exchange for the city's easement across the Main Street Plaza. The land on Salt Lake's west side, near the Sorenson Center, would be developed by the Alliance for Unity, which will raise $5 million for the aforementioned Unity Center.
Along with the Unity Center, the Sorenson Center is being expanded and a new parking lot developed.
Nimkin noted that city staffers will take ideas for the Unity Center to the west-side community for input. The biggest remaining question mark is who will pay for the Unity Center's operational costs. The city is already cash-strapped, and while private interests will build the center, there are some fears about whether there will be any funds to operate and maintain the facility.
"We'll have to look carefully at operational costs," said City Councilman Dave Buhler, who is also on the Downtown Alliance's board.
The city will craft a business plan, including an operational budget, for the center this summer and will likely make that plan public this fall, Nimkin said.
Under the current plan, the Planning Commission will consider the proposal April 9 and then the City Council will vote on the proposal in late April or May.
The center is greatly needed because services at the existing Sorenson Center are at capacity, Nimkin said. The Unity Center will service an area from Redwood Road to 700 East and from 2100 South to North Temple. In that area there are 11,471 youth younger than 17. There are also nearly 2,000 single mothers, at least 28 languages and more than 1,700 children who are currently not served by early childhood development programs.
When the city sold the block of Main Street to the church in 1999, it retained a public-access easement across the proposed plaza. In response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the easement creates a free-speech forum, similar to what exists on public sidewalks.
The church didn't like that decision because it paid $8.1 million for the land and the ability to control what happens there, including restricting protests, demonstrations, leaflet distribution and some dress and speech.
The court suggested that the city either give its easement to the church — dissolving the right to public access and free speech — or craft time, place and manner restrictions for the plaza.
Nimkin said Anderson's plan would help heal the LDS/non-LDS rift in Salt Lake City that had been exacerbated by the plaza brouhaha.
"The controversy pulled the scab off the great divide," he said. " . . . We need a solution that will hopefully end the divisiveness."
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com