Pioneer Park is still a priority

It didn't make Salt Lake City's bond election last year, and this year it didn't make Mayor Rocky Anderson's recommended spending list for capital improvement projects. But that doesn't mean Pioneer Park redevelopment is dead.

Instead, Salt Lake City's new plan to pay for park redevelopment is a private-funding campaign that will begin in earnest later this year. Throughout the campaign, city leaders will hit up private organizations to fund the park's redesign, which is estimated to cost $6 million to $7 million, Public Services Director Rick Graham said.

Already, Salt Lake foundations are awash with requests from cultural projects looking for millions in private funds. There's the Leonardo at Library Square, which needs $10 million, the Living Planet Aquarium wants $47 million, the Utah Theater on Main Street needs a $45 million face-lift, a sprawling sports complex on the city's northwestern edge is trying to raise $7.5 million and the Hogle Zoo, Tracy Aviary and the Utah Museum of Natural History are similarly looking for millions to renovate or build new facilities.

Public Services Director Rick Graham says the city is not worried about adding Pioneer Park to that mix.

"This is not the first year there's been more than one project seeking private funding," he said.

Graham notes there is ample interest in the historic park, set on the southwest edge of downtown near 300 West and 400 South. Many historical groups like the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, as well as groups interested in keeping downtown healthy, would likely be interested in helping out the park.

Still some foundation leaders, like Lon Watson, vice president of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, say they've been inundated by funding requests from cultural projects and are feeling tapped out.

And City Council Chair Jill Remington Love, who believes Pioneer Park is fine as is, says the administration shouldn't be seeking private funds since it would take away from other cultural projects.

"I have concerns about the merit of the project," she said. "And there are so many projects out there from the Leonardo to the zoo that I would be afraid it would be taking away from the other projects."

But private funding may be Anderson's last hope to fund a park improvement, which is a pet project of his that even became an election issue last year when challenger Frank Pignanelli pledged to spend more city money on sidewalks and streets than the park.

The City Council has been less enthusiastic about park redevelopment and voted not to place a roughly $6 million bond on the ballot last November after Anderson had recommended it.