The Salt Lake City Council allocated nearly $8 million to fund capital improvement projects Tuesday, including more than $1 million for upgrades to Pioneer and Liberty parks.

A little more than $420,000 of that will be spent on Pioneer Park, which 78 percent of Salt Lake City residents say needs to be renovated, according to a recent poll commissioned by the city. The improvements approved Tuesday include an off-leash dog area.

The dog park was one of the amenities proposed in Mayor Rocky Anderson's $4 million makeover of the park. The recent Dan Jones & Associates poll said 55 percent of Salt Lake City residents wanted to see a fenced off-leash dog area at the park.

The City Council put $600,000 toward Liberty Park to complete construction of the surfacing around the children's playground, a new concessions building and public restrooms, reconstruction of the boat dock on the lake and relocation of the War Memorial.

Funding also was allocated for off-leash dog parks at Herm Franks and Cottonwood parks. The $50,000 allocation will go toward completing sidewalk improvements at Herm Franks Park, 700 E. 1300 South, and constructing new dog-park facilities such as fencing, benches and a dog drinking fountain at Cottonwood Park, 300 N. 1600 West.

Nearly $290,000 was allocated for safety lighting along the Jordan River trail from Constitution Park to the Rose Park Golf Course bridge.

In all, the council put nearly $2.3 million toward park improvements; about $2.9 million was allocated for city streets.

"This is one of the most important things we do every year," Councilman Dave Buhler said. "It's obvious that we have many more infrastructure needs than we're funding, but I think we've done a great job trying to balance those needs and take care of the most pressing ones."

In other action Tuesday, the City Council made no decision on the LDS Church's request to partially close four downtown streets for new and expanded median ramps that will access underground parking for the City Creek Center development.

City Creek Reserve Inc., a new division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' real estate arm, Property Reserve Inc., wants to construct a new median ramp on South Temple between State and Main streets. It also wants to expand the existing median ramps on West Temple and 100 South.

CCRI also wants to extend the underground pedestrian walkway at Social Hall Avenue to connect to underground parking for the City Creek development, an indoor-outdoor mix of retail, residential and office space. To do that, the developer needs the Salt Lake City Council's permission to purchase subsurface property rights from the city.

Following a public hearing Tuesday, the City Council deferred that decision to a future meeting.

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