Salt Lake residents split on Gateway issue

Public opinion surrounding the Nordstrom-Gateway issue has shifted since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased Crossroads Plaza last month.

While city residents once decidedly favored allowing Nordstrom to move three blocks west away from Crossroads to The Gateway, a new Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows residents are now evenly split on the issue. The poll was conducted before the LDS Church announced new plans Wednesday for revitalizing downtown.

Even those residents who are members of the LDS Church, whose leaders have lobbied the City Council not to change city zoning laws to allow Nordstrom to open at the Gateway, are divided almost evenly. Current zoning does not allow large stores at the complex.

Tonight at 6 p.m. the City Council will convene a hearing to take public comment on the potential zoning change. The meeting will be inside council chambers at the City-County Building, 451 S. State, and will be televised live on the city's cable channel 17 and on tape delay on KUED Channel 7 beginning at 9:30 p.m. The council is expected to vote on the issue at its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.

If the new poll is any indication, public comment should be split on both sides.

Among the 371 residents polled who said they belonged to the LDS Church, 45 percent said the city should not change its zoning to facilitate the move, while 41 percent said Nordstrom should be allowed to move. Another 14 percent said they didn't know, according to the poll.

Given the poll's 3.7 percent margin of error, those numbers indicate a statistical tie, similar to the one that exists among city residents of all faiths.

Catholics were most likely to oppose a zoning change, with 56 percent opposed compared to only 35 percent in favor, while 10 percent didn't know. Protestants were most likely to favor a zoning change, with 49 percent in favor, 39 percent opposed and 13 percent undecided.

Those numbers seem to back up what Salt Lake City Council members — who are all members of the LDS Church and have been criticized in the past for voting in favor of church wishes on city issues — have been saying all along: The Nordstrom-Gateway issue is not an ecclesiastical decision.

Of the 764 residents polled, 45 percent said the city should keep the zoning as is, while 43 percent said Nordstrom should be allowed to move and 12 percent didn't know.