"It probably gained the momentum that it did because Temple Square and Main Street were not only the physical intersection of matters of church and state but the symbolic intersection as well. The metaphor is powerful."

It was the ACLU that first questioned the city's deal with the church in 1999 when then-legal director Stephen Clark sent a letter to then-city attorney Roger Cutler citing concerns about the city's easement.

The city and the church agreed to sell the block of Main Street for $8.1 million in 1999, but the city retained its easement on the property, which would become an open plaza. However, as part of the sale, the church wanted to restrict types of dress, speech and conduct there.

The ACLU sued, arguing that the easement was a public right of way with constitutional protections from the First Amendment.

"I saw it was a waste of a lot of energy and divisive in the community, and I tried to urge him not to challenge the easement," Cutler said. "I guess that's water well under the bridge."

During public hearings throughout the city at the time, residents split opinions on the plaza deal. Some said the plaza would harm traffic patterns, others said the city was sacrificing constitutional rights to a political and religious behemoth and others supported the plaza and the parklike atmosphere that the church built.

In 2002, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibited the free-speech restrictions on the plaza, saying the plaza had a public easement with traditional protections for expression. The church appealed but then considered a proposal from Mayor Rocky Anderson to swap the easement for 2.17 acres of church-owned property in the Glendale neighborhood. The city would get land for a community center, and the church would have its easement.

Kurt Van Gorden, a protestant minister from California, was among the plaintiffs when the ACLU filed suit against the city for a second time in 2003, this time focused on the land swap. Gorden was arrested twice in April 2002 while passing out religious tracts on Main Street. He maintains that the end of the Main Street Plaza fight is the end of his free speech rights.

"We have been robbed from our free speech rights," Gorden said. "The whole thing is a great loss."

Anderson, who as a newly elected mayor in 1999 walked into the deal that former Mayor Deedee Corradini wrought in her last year in office, said that the effect on religious tension was the true byproduct of the fight over Main Street, not the effects on free speech.

"In terms of the impact on people's lives — the right to express people's opinions — none of that was really significantly impacted whatsoever by what went on here," Anderson said. "But I think there was a sense of some people of being put upon, of having the LDS Church control the outcome, and yet on the other hand, the sense by LDS Church members that they were being treated unfairly."

Reid and other early proponents of the 1999 deal insist the Main Street sale has proven to be an asset.

"Nothing comes easily when you're making major change," Corradini said. "People don't like change, generally speaking, but in the end people will feel good that we do have a beautiful green space and open space in the middle of our city."

As for religious split between LDS Church members and those of other faiths, Corradini said, "time tends to heal those types of things."

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com