Church supports Salt Lake mayor's proposal
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SALT LAKE CITY — As public meetings got underway in February to consider Mayor Rocky Anderson's proposed resolution of issues involving the Church Plaza, Presiding Bishop H. David Burton released a statement noting that the Church had reviewed the proposal.
"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," he said. "The Church urges the fullest possible public discussion of the proposal, and remains optimistic concerning its outcome."
When the city sold the block of Main Street between the Salt Lake Temple and the Church headquarters campus 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, and that the Church could not restrict behavior and speech on the plaza. Mayor Anderson's plan calls for a land swap that cedes the city's easement to the Church in exchange for Church-owned land in Salt Lake City's west side Glendale neighborhood.
