Funding pleases soccer boosters

Two years ago Salt Lake City residents approved five multimillion-dollar bonds. Lightning-speed progress has been made on four of those five bond initiatives, but one — the most expensive and controversial — has lagged behind.

In fact, there has been no effort to raise the matching funds needed to make Salt Lake City's proposed regional sports facility a reality.

But now, youth soccer advocates say they are ready to move forward.

Those advocates were buoyed last week as the Salt Lake City Council allocated $350,000 to begin the preliminary design work for a sports complex in the city's far northwest corner. That design work will examine the site to determine if it's a suitable place for the sprawling soccer and softball complex.

"This is a site that we've concluded is the best," Salt Lake City's public services director Rick Graham said.

That site, just off I-215 near the Jordan River on the city's border with Davis County, has drawn the ire of river advocates looking to keep the river pristine and clean.

Jeff Salt, executive director of Great Salt Lake Keeper, showed the council more than a dozen soccer balls he has fished from the river. Those balls were deposited into the river from fields at various spots along the river's edge.

"These balls represent a problem with building a regional soccer complex on the Jordan River," he said. "Soccer fields and soccer complexes create negative impact on the river."

"We feel that this is not an environmentally friendly development. We feel that Mayor (Rocky) Anderson and his political constituents are trying to shove a soccer park down our throats."

Despite the environmental concerns, the City Council approved the $350,000 for the initial design and engineering work. That work will examine some of the environmental issues as well as the potential for flooding since the site has been flooded by the Great Salt Lake before.

"We have every intention of building this in a way that's compatible to the environment and in a way that's compatible with the river," Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart said. "This administration has a strong record on environmental issues."