W. Jordan Council may amend Save Our Main Park initiative

WEST JORDAN — The City Council wants to change a voter-created ordinance that prevents commercial use of downtown city land without a citywide vote.

The so-called Save Our Main Park initiative was one of two competing initiatives on the 2001 West Jordan ballot regarding the roughly 90-acre Main Park area — 2200 West to Redwood Road and 7800 South to the railroad tracks just south of City Hall.

The initiative was in response to a city-sponsored initiative, the "Beautify Our Main Park" initiative, spearheaded by then-Mayor Donna Evans. It would have allowed for mixed-use residential and commercial development in the area.

Save Our Main Park, on the other hand, sought to prohibit the sale or lease of any city-owned land in the area without a public vote. It was pushed by a group led by then-mayoral candidate Bryan Holladay — who was elected mayor in the same election that saw Save Our Main Park approved by a 67 percent vote.

Beautify Our Main Park was also approved by a majority of voters — 51 percent — but Save Our Main Park won as the more popular initiative.

But now, city leaders hoping to redevelop the city's historic sugar factory into a cultural arts center say that effort would only be financially feasible if some sugar factory property could be leased to some sort of business — an art gallery, a performing arts center, maybe a restaurant, Councilman Rob Bennett said.

Bennett headed a council subcommittee that recommended a solution — amending the initiative to remove the prohibition on leasing the land while still prohibiting sale of the land. State law allows legislative bodies like city councils to amend any ordinance or law, including citizen-created initiatives.

The idea was approved 4-2 at Tuesday's council meeting. The council officially directed staff to write the amendment language, to be approved at a future council meeting.

Among the supporters of the amendment was Holladay, who said he suspected that as a supporter of the original initiative he would be criticized regardless of how he voted on the amendment. But he said the amendment keeps the same intent as the initiative, creating a way to preserve the sugar factory rather than replacing it with new development.

But another original initiative supporter, Councilwoman Kathy Hilton, voted no — though she said she believes there were serious flaws with the initiative's language.