Salt Lake zones away its open space

By Eliot A. Brinton
Published: Friday, April 28, 2006 9:58 a.m. MDT
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Should Salt Lake City zone away two-thirds of its open space to preserve one-third? It makes no sense to the Planning Commission or to the Community Council chairmen, but it does make sense to our City Council. Go figure!

Fearful of an ill-defined threat to 13 acres of prime open space on the east bench, Dave Buhler proposed that nearly nine acres be rezoned for institutional use so that just four acres could be kept as open space. Incredibly, four other council members agreed with this backward approach.

As further results, a well-heeled private school, Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School, gets a rezone to buy this premier open land for permanent new buildings and parking (even though it has plenty of land elsewhere, and public schools were recently denied a similar deal). Also, Mount Olivet Cemetery gets all the money it wants without having to do its job of selling cemetery plots. What's in it for the city?

Preservation of one-third of the initial open space at no cost. Why not offer to use some of the $5 million the council had just approved for open space preservation to keep all of this land open? Apparently, city money must not be used to preserve the other two-thirds or to hinder the wishes of a powerful private school. You get what you pay for. The city paid nothing and so it will lose far more than it will receive.

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City residents will suffer the permanent loss of nearly nine acres of prime open space while getting in return just two sidewalks ("trails") through the property, a miserly five hours per week of public access to some sports fields, weak (and maybe unenforceable) land-use restrictions and $100,000 to try to fix new traffic problems the schools will create.

Not convinced this is a bargain? Neither are the neighbors who aren't RHSM parents. Meanwhile, two brave City Council members, Nancy Sexton and Soren Simonsen, wisely proposed that the council take a little more time to reconsider the illogic of the plan, look at unresolved legal questions and last-minute changes in the RHSM plan and explore rapidly developing alternatives to the city rezoning giveaway.

But the council majority just couldn't bear further scrutiny of their short-cut deal. Instead, they want to preserve a little open space on the cheap and easy by rezoning most of it away!

Eliot A. Brinton is president of the Sunnyside East Neighborhood Association.

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