Posted on 10/28/2002 1:29:58 PM PST by Utah Girl
Mayor Rocky Anderson may be having a hard time turning down a free public park, lawyers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say.
And that, not public access, may be the reason for the mayor's decision not to relinquish a city easement through Main Street Plaza, church lawyers say. Without the easement, the church can't restrict speech and conduct on the one-block section of Main Street it purchased three years ago for $8.1 million.
In court documents filed earlier this week, church attorneys suggested the mayor was acting more as a profiteer than a crusader for fairness. Anderson's refusal to turn over the easement, announced last Tuesday, came after a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that the speech and conduct restrictions were unconstitutional.
"Having been handed a significant windfall by the panel in a beautifully landscaped area worth tens of millions of dollars that the church paid for the 'privilege' of constructing and must now maintain at its own expense, the mayor perhaps not surprisingly is reluctant to change things," church attorneys wrote.
Church lawyers filed documents Wednesday seeking a rehearing before the full 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A spokesman for Anderson, who is in India for a global-warming conference, said the mayor had no ulterior motives in refusing to hand over the easement.
"It was certainly not the motivation of the city to gain an extra park at the expense of the church," said Joshua Ewing.
In ruling that the city easement made the plaza open to free speech and expression, the three-judge panel created dueling tenants on the plaza ? the church and city ? each with seemingly equal property rights and interests.
In light of that ruling, the church asked Anderson to give up the city's easement, making the church the sole property owner and enabling it to reinstate its speech, conduct and dress restrictions. The mayor declined.
And now the city is joint tenant to a park it didn't pay for, church attorneys claim.
Salt Lake City not only received $8.1 million for the land, but also is benefitting from church landscaping efforts. And still the city has control of much of what goes on at the plaza. Anderson is set to craft "time, place and manner" restrictions for the plaza, which could even govern church functions.
All along Anderson has insisted his motive was not money or a free city park but a public right of way through the plaza. The 1999 sale included provisions for 24-hour public access while giving the church the right to control conduct, dress and speech on the Main Street block.
The 10th Circuit panel ruling snarled that agreement.
"The bottom line is that there is no way to ensure public access without constitutional rights attaching to it," Ewing said.
With Salt Lake City's First Unitarian Church as its client, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the city over the sale. U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart ruled against the ACLU, stating that the church's conduct, dress and speech restrictions were constitutional. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals panel disagreed.
Despite being on the outs with the church, Anderson insisted in an interview earlier this week that Main Street Plaza will not hurt his chances in the November 2003 election.
He laughs at the suggestion that a Republican rival could defeat him by promising to return the easement to the church.
"If somebody did that they would get 5 percent of the vote," Anderson said. "Even LDS members would see through that ? No. 1 as pandering and No. 2 as being completely unethical."
Even if every LDS Church member in Salt Lake City voted against Anderson he could still win re-election. Pollster Dan Jones estimates that only 45 percent of Salt Lake City residents are Mormon.
Religion might not matter, said Tim Chambless, adjunct professor at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics.
"There may be many people who do not claim LDS affiliations who are sympathetic to the LDS viewpoint," he said.
Still, Anderson is sure the plaza brouhaha won't cost him the November 2003 election. He maintains he took significant political risk by even considering giving the easement to the church.
In the end, Anderson kept it because the city would've never sold the land in the first place if not for the easement. Besides, he said, the church knew a court could rule against the speech and conduct restrictions prior to the sale.
My brother also says that the 1st Amendment rights apply to ONLY the public easement on the plaza, which is 12 feet on either side of it. The city is acting like they have control over the whole plaza, and the church is probably going to have to go to court anyway over that issue, at a minimum.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of animosity towards the LDS church from some quarters in SLC. If anything benefits the church, they don't want it to happen, even if it benefits all of the citizens of SLC. The most interesting part is that the LDS church owns the land that Abravanel Hall and the Salt Palace convention center sit on, SL City pays $1 a year in rent to the church. The church donated the land a century ago for the SL City-County building. The church lent the use of a block of land for the Winter Olympics Awards ceremonies in Feb, 2002 with NO restrictions on what SLOC could do with the land (including smoking and drinking.) SLOC is the one who set the restrictions for the awards ceremonies.
The saddest part is that some in SLC cannot abide the LDS church and its teachings, and feel that they must stick their fingers in our eyes at every possible juncture. A group has applied to have a wine and cheese party on the Plaza, right at the foot of the Salt Lake temple. They know full well that we don't drink alcohol, but in their pettiness they think it would be real fun to drink wine on church owned property. Sometimes I wonder if American society has gone overboard in the pursuit of OUR rights, especially when our rights interfere with the beliefs of others. As you can tell, this whole Main Street Plaza issue pushes my buttons in a big way.
"The wicked who fight against Zion
Will surely be smitten at last"......
"The wicked who fight against Zion
Will surely be smitten at last"......
What I want to know is why is the mayor of SLC is in India for a global-warming conference. Just how exactly is that benefitting the citizens of Salt Lake City? And how many of his family members are along for the ride? And how much is this costing the taxpayers?
Amazing that you have the "right of free speech" on private property nowadays.
Oh, wait, I forgot: You DON'T have the right of free speech even on PUBLIC property, if that public property is adjacent to an abortion clinic.
Nevermind.
I've also heard rumblings of some anti-Mormon groups applying to protest and proselytize on the Plaza during General Conference.
BTW you will need alot of bike racks.
And thanks for your support. I would support any religion in this valley to practice the way they see fit. We don't have to agree with religious doctrine, but our country was founded for religious freedom. And that should go to respecting others' beliefs. (I'm not ranting at you, BTW...)
Put up a fence around the area and mark it "private property."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.