S.L. moves ahead on soccer complex plan

SALT LAKE CITY — Saying opposition to a soccer complex near the Jordan River is rooted in misinformation, the Salt Lake City Council voted Tuesday night to move forward with the $22.8 million project.

The council's action authorizes the city administration to begin entering into contracts for the 160-acre complex near 2200 North, allowing construction to begin this month in anticipation of a fall 2011 opening.

The action comes nearly seven years after Salt Lake City voters approved Proposition 5, a $15.3 million bond issue for a sports complex to accommodate soccer, baseball, rugby and lacrosse.

A $7.5 million gift from Real Salt Lake will cover the remainder of the project costs, city officials said.

"It's cliched, but the benefit of sport is almost immeasurable," Councilman Luke Garrott said. "Us providing those opportunities to Salt Lake (residents) is the right thing to do because they voted for it."

Opponents of the project have argued that the complex the city now plans to build is not what voters approved in 2003.

Baseball fields have been removed from the project to cut costs. The revised plan includes 16 soccer fields, including one championship field with bleachers and lights, though some of the fields will be designed with rugby and lacrosse in mind.

Soren Simonsen, one of two councilmen to cast dissenting votes Tuesday, reiterated his opposition to the location of the complex and it's proximity to the Jordan River. Councilman Van Turner also voted against moving forward with the project.

"While I applaud the desire to move forward with creating a world-class soccer facility, I do not support the development ... at this site," Simonsen said.

All six people who spoke Tuesday night during a public hearing on the soccer complex did so in opposition to its construction.

In addition to environmental concerns, residents voiced worries that the soccer complex will be an elite, "pay-to-play" facility that caters to the rich, with play and practice dictated by Real Salt Lake.

"What you're doing is using tax dollars in a convoluted way to fund a private, pay-to play facility," said Nancy Saxton , a former Salt Lake City councilwoman. "Most kids will never have a chance to play on these fields."

Public services director Rick Graham confirmed that teams will have to pay to use the new fields, though he noted they're already doing so at city parks. The cost to reserve fields at the new facility, however, will be larger, Graham said.

"The whole plan is to allow us to take the pressure from our community parks and locate that in a site where we can manage that and provide a better experience for the player," he said.

Graham also said that the $7.5 million gift from Real Salt Lake comes with "no hidden deals" that give the Major League Soccer team any claim to the facility.

Budget revisions approved by the City Council included a commitment to fully fund a riparian restoration plan along the Jordan River. That work could end up costing as much as $1 million.

The City Council still must approve the sale of the bonds for the project.

e-mail: jpage@desnews.com