Salt Lake east-siders oppose land lease at park

Residents of Salt Lake City's east bench are discouraging the University of Utah from entering into a land lease with This Is the Place Heritage Park.

The board of the living history site recommended earlier this month the leasing of 12 acres to Associated Regional and University Pathologists (ARUP) for an administrative building. The lease would bring in $400,000 a year to the cash-strapped park.

The Division of State Parks and Recreation board has final say, but neighbors told a group of university officials in a community forum Tuesday they do not want to lose state-owned open space to a building and parking lot. They also pitched various other sites ARUP could pick for expansion.

"It may be the savior for This Is the Place State Park, but I think for the university's point of view, you should reconsider," said Steve Alder, vice president of the Sunnyside East Neighborhood Association.

Steve Blackham, a member of the Emigration Canyon District Coalition, said the site is almost sacred in the state, like the grounds of the Salt Lake Temple and State Capitol.

"I cannot fathom how anybody in the university, the state or ARUP could think about building on hallowed ground like this," he said.

Bryan Jensen, a trustee of the Sunnyside East Association, said leasing a crucial piece of open space and view shed should not be the answer to the park's financial woes.

"We've applied a Band-aid that will be very difficult to take off unless we find another way to remedy the situation," Jensen said.

He noted that the park land itself is a National Historic Site. It should be saved, Jensen said, because it is "the pot of gold" at the end of the Mormon Trail that brought settlers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, similar to the well-known Oregon Trail.

While the U. does not take action during such forums, ARUP officials detailed their plans to the concerned residents.

"We're very sensitive to how we would position ourselves in that spot, if we were given that opportunity," said Ron Weiss of ARUP.

ARUP must expand, either within its current location or elsewhere, and will need that administrative building within a three-year time period, he said.

Officials with This Is the Place Heritage Park did not attend the meeting. Ellis Ivory, chairman of the park's board, said their position is "pretty clear."