Soccer complex opponents ask court to stop the project pending records request

SALT LAKE CITY — Opponents of a proposed soccer complex along the Jordan River have filed a motion looking to stop further proceedings until a Freedom of Information Act appeal has been resolved.

Jeff Salt, of the Jordan River Restoration Network, said the motion was filed Friday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court. The filing asks the court to halt any further meetings and zoning changes — "anything that would advance the project" — until a records request has been fulfilled.

"This is full-on war now," Salt said. "They don't want us to use those records in any open meetings."

Salt wants to know more about the city's work on the plan to put a large-scale sports complex adjacent to the river near 2200 North and filed an extensive request for records related to the project. Funding for the 160-acre project, which is to include 13 soccer fields and two baseball diamonds, will come from the city via a $15.3 million bond measure approved by voters in 2003, with another $7.5 million from Real Salt Lake.

The environmental group filed a wide-ranging records request with the city earlier this year. After losing a battle with the Salt Lake City Appeals Board and the State Records Committee, city officials filed an appeal in 3rd District Court.

"We suspect the best story is yet to be told in the records," Salt said. "And if they're immaterial, the only way we can know is by looking at them."

Lisa Harrison Smith, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ralph Becker, said the city had received the filings, but could not comment on them Friday.

In June, City Attorney Ed Rutan said the position the city has taken has nothing to do with Salt's opposition to the complex's location and everything to do with the time and labor involved in gathering the information.

"Here, we've got this overwhelming document request," Rutan said. "Tracking everything down involves 58 present and former city employees. … So far we've copied about 3,000 pages of documents. That is an incredibly time-intensive task for the city to perform."

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