From Deseret News archives:
Park isn't place for development
This Is the Place board votes not to pursue commercial lease
After intense public opposition to a 12-acre land lease at the state-owned site, the park's board voted Thursday to no longer pursue the lease option.
Instead, the board will look into other funding sources, such as open space bond money from Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, money from the transient room tax and increased state appropriations.
"In the past month, there has been a great amount of public reaction to the land lease plan," Ellis Ivory, chairman of the park's board, read from a letter sent to board members. "Fortunately, many community leaders have stepped forward with suggestions for new ways to provide the needed funding and still preserve the open space."
An unlikely group had banded together to save the park from development. They included Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller; Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson; Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon; Ivory; Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.; and officials at the Division of State Parks and Recreation. They came to the park's aid in the 11th hour to hammer out a solution.
At the This Is the Place park meeting, Miller, a prominent park donor, showed up to praise Ivory and the park. He said he thinks the support from the city and county will mean more donations.
He added that public leaders who previously did not want to be involved with the park are now offering their help.
"We took a rocky road to get here. But people are re-engaged," he said after the meeting.
The park received $2.2 million in private donations since 2006. It must now try to garner $400,000 in public dollars.
"We're not going to rest until we get this funding nailed down," Ivory said.
"We will personally do everything we can to assist with a long-term strategy to preserve the park's open space, draw linkages to Hogle Zoo, celebrate historical significance, and identify opportunities and amenities that will create a lively, popular attraction for visitors and residents," Anderson and Corroon wrote in a joint letter to the board.
In addition, the LDS Church will provide a curator free of charge to the park.
The new funding plan comes nearly a month after the park's board recommended in March to lease 12 acres at the east corner of its property to the University of Utah's research park for $400,000 a year.
Residents, donors and local leaders, however, vocally opposed the lease and the loss of east-bench open space. Neighborhood associations have actively protested the proposal, and a former park curator started an online petition asking the state to take control of the park.
