Rocky's plan for diversity coming, just a little late

In his January State of the City speech, Mayor Rocky Anderson pledged to focus his attention on the city's shrinking population and a widening religious divide.

The mayor said he would develop action plans and present them to the City Council and public by spring. It's now late summer and the mayor's office has yet to deliver the plans.

"I have not seen that plan (to bring more residents to the city) and I think most of us kind of raised our eyebrows when we heard about it," Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said.

Mayor's office staffers say the plans are coming, just a little later than expected.

"It's not fair to say we haven't been working on these things," Anderson's spokeswoman Deeda Seed said. "We have been all summer long."

Anderson's population plan is apparently needed, given the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. After a surge in population between 1990 and 2000, U.S. Census Bureau is projecting a net loss of 1,873 residents from 2000 to 2003.

Anderson told the City Council his new plan would attract "at least 15,000 new residents to Salt Lake City in the next seven years."

The effort requires a mix of new housing, different types of residences, zoning changes to allow higher densities, marketing and quality of life improvements that will attract new residents, he told the council in January.

Seed said that the housing action plan is coming sometime before next February when the mayor's office launches a campaign designed to promote Salt Lake City living. One action item the mayor's office is considering in its effort to attract people to Utah's capital is using Redevelopment Agency funds to offer low-interest loans to homeowners, Seed said.

Beyond housing, Anderson told the council in January he would launch an initiative aimed at closing the cultural and religious divide between residents who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and those who don't.