RDA bill may hurt pro soccer plans

Plans to use redevelopment agency dollars to secure a site for a Major League Soccer stadium are in serious jeopardy as a state lawmaker looks to rein in city redevelopment agencies across Utah.

And without the RDA dollars needed to make proposals from Salt Lake City and Murray work, soccer stadium plans may need serious revisions.

Salt Lake City RDA executive director Dave Oka said a restriction on using RDA funds to secure a site for a soccer stadium near downtown would make the project "extremely difficult."

Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, plans to introduce a bill in the next few days that would significantly limit city RDAs by prohibiting their use for retail development. Bramble admits he is "stepping on some sacred turf" with his measure, which he said will likely end up in a compromise between city groups that favor RDAs and other groups, like public education, that don't favor diverting property tax dollars for redevelopment.

However, one item Bramble says he won't compromise on is a provision that disallows RDA funds from being used for recreational facilities — including soccer stadiums.

"That would definitely be one of the abuses of RDAs," Bramble said. "I met with the folks that are proposing the soccer stadium, and I suspect that this bill would directly impact their proposal."

With both Murray and Salt Lake actively recruiting the soccer stadium with RDA money, Bramble's bill would all but kill the stadium proposals in their current forms.

"Statewide it's hard to argue, when we are faced with such huge challenges in public education, it's hard to justify . . . redirecting (tax increments) to a recreation facility," Bramble said.

Murray's proposed soccer stadium site is in a yet-to-be created RDA district near 4500 South and State while Salt Lake City's site, Block 22 near Main and 700 South, is in the West Temple Gateway project area. However, Salt Lake City is now considering other sites instead of Block 22 because the cost to purchase the block has skyrocketed to nearly $20 million.

While Oka declined to talk about other sites, the Deseret Morning News, through a Government Records Access and Management Act request, was given a copy of a map that showed the other sites city leaders have contemplated (see map).

SportsWest vice president Dean Howes maintains RDAs were made for projects such as the new soccer stadium, which he argues will infuse jobs and economic development to areas surrounding the stadium. While some aspects of Bramble's effort — like forbidding neighboring cities from using RDA funds to attract a big-box retailer across the border — are good, RDAs should be allowed to do projects like the stadium.