Voters will decide fate of $125M public-safety complex

Voters will have the final say on the fate of Salt Lake City's much-debated public-safety complex after the Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved placing the $125 million bond issue on the November ballot.

"This is a great moment for the city," Council Chairman Carlton Christensen said. "It's taken a lot of work to get here. Some of you still have a lot of work to go."

If approved, the bond would pay for the construction of an emergency-operations center and a police and fire headquarters.

Outside the council chambers, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank and emergency management director Cory Lyman slapped hands.

"It's been a long process," Burbank said. "This is significant. It's such an important issue for our employees."

The department's current building, 315 E. 200 South, is in disrepair; officers have become stuck in elevators, and water leaks in the evidence room.

In the three months since Mayor Ralph Becker recommended the bond issue, the location of the site — rarely the need — has been debated.

Last month, Becker backed off a proposal to build on Library Square, instead recommending the complex should be built on the other side of 300 East.

Tuesday, three people voiced concerns publicly about that choice and the city's effort to create a "civic campus."

"By any name, I believe the civic campus is a monumental mistake," Gerald McDonough said, calling such campuses "notorious dead zones" after 5 p.m. "To surround the jewel that is our library with the gray blight of office buildings would be a travesty."

Councilman Luke Garrott said he hoped the buildings' design would be of the highest quality and act as a "catalyst" for development in the area.

"Buildings that are beautiful will stimulate" a 24-hour population, Garrott said.

Graduate student John Allen Shaw said if the Gallivan Center were Salt Lake's living room, the public-safety complex would be its "mother-in-law addition."

Tuesday night, the council opted not to make the bond language site specific. That leaves some leeway for the city to consider another location.

"But we would need some compelling reason to consider an alternative," Christensen said.

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