City attorneys defend sale of city block to Mormon church

The Associated Press

12.09.99

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	Mormon Temple looms over what was Main Street in Salt Lake City during construction in November.

SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City attorneys admit that when the Mormon church bought one block of Main Street for $8.1 million, the price tag included some freedoms.

City attorneys Roger Cutler, Lynn Pace and Boyd Ferguson filed a response on Dec. 7 to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit challenging free-speech and assembly restrictions on the church's plans for a plaza at the former city site.

"Although public access was preserved, the entire appearance and function of the property was to change completely from its prior use," the city's response states. "Notwithstanding the right to public access, the property would not be considered to be a public forum, limited or otherwise."

ACLU attorney Stephen Clark says the city is missing the point.

"Main Street either is a public forum or it isn't," Clark said. "And a city can't sell the public's constitutional rights on Main Street."

In negotiating the sale last spring, the city and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to allow 24-hour public access to the block, but with restrictions.

Those restrictions include prohibiting alcohol and tobacco and "loitering, assembling, partying, demonstrating, picketing ... engaging in any illegal, offensive, indecent, obscene, vulgar, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct."

The church itself is not limited in its use of the property.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in November asking the court to reverse the public access restrictions, among other legal relief.

But in their response, city attorneys dismissed the ACLU argument that Main Street was and is a public forum, a traditional meeting place for pickets and protests. If church leaders had expected to own a public forum, they could have paid less for the stretch of street, the attorneys argue.

They note that none of the groups the ACLU is representing, First Unitarian Church, the Utah chapter of the National Organization for Women and Utahns for Fairness, has been denied the chance to protest on the block.

Salt Lake City has sold streets to the Baptist, Catholic and Lutheran churches without the ACLU's interference, the attorneys said.

Main Street "has never been a unique or designated area for free speech activities," city attorneys wrote. "The closure and sale of the property had no practical effect on the ability to exercise free speech rights adjacent to Temple Square and other church-owned property."

But the ACLU says the block historically has been an important venue.

"The city has sold the church a very exclusive, preferred platform to broadcast its views to the denigration of everyone else in the city," Clark said.

Meanwhile, the Mormon church has petitioned to become a party in the lawsuit.

The church filed the motion on Dec. 6. It wants to join Salt Lake City and Mayor Deedee Corradini as defendants.

"The present parties in the suit will not adequately protect (the church's) interest," the motion states.

H. David Burton, the church's presiding bishop, says he's confident the lawsuit will be decided in the church's favor.

"We feel our base is very, very solid," he said. "We went through a very extensive public process. ... This took a long period of time, and none of the plaintiffs ever showed up in the public process."

"Our complaint is with the city," said Carol Gnade, executive director of the ACLU's Utah chapter. "It was the transaction, the easement, that was worked out in the City Council that we're challenging."

The church's motion notes a severance clause included in the deal: If the court determines the easement guaranteeing 24-hour public access and restricted behavior is unconstitutional, that part of the deed would be dropped. If the city refused to abandon the easement, the church could ask for its money back and stop the project.

Earlier this year, Cutler said the city might drop the easement altogether if a judge determines the free-speech restrictions are unconstitutional. Now, with mayor-elect

Rocky Anderson directing future legal action, Cutler says the city will fight to keep public access and the money.

"Our interest is to keep the (money) and honor the deal," Cutler said. "I don't think anybody is interested in writing checks."