Report: LDS Church plans to close access to Main Street Plaza overnight
Enjoy the View
By Benjamin Wood @BjaminWood
The ongoing construction at Temple Square has deprived Salt Lakers of one of the city's premier pedestrian spaces, severing a car-free connection between the downtown core on Main Street and popular destinations like Capitol Hill and Memory Grove.
But according to a recent report by the news website Building Salt Lake, residents should just get used to detouring around Temple Square, as the current redesign by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes new gates that will seal off Main Street Plaza overnight.
Andrew Wittenberg, spokesman for Mayor Erin Mendenhall, confirmed to City Weekly that the gates received city approval under the terms of a now decades-old agreement that ceded control of Main Street between North Temple and South Temple to the church in exchange for donations that facilitated expansion of the Sorenson Center in Glendale.
“The city relinquished all rights to the property as a public forum for First Amendment activities/for public access, but kept easements for emergency/public safety access, for utilities and as a view corridor," Wittenberg said. "The gates were approved through two building permits ... . The gates align with the agreement in terms of the city’s limited ability to ensure that the view corridor is maintained."
Representatives of the LDS church did not respond to City Weekly's requests for comment.
The land-swap agreement was approved under then-Mayor Deedee Corradini and took shape under then-Mayor Rocky Anderson. Since that time—and prior to current construction obstacles—Main Street Plaza had remained open as a pedestrian corridor, but was under private authority. In 2009, two men were detained by church security after sharing a kiss on the plaza, leading to weeks of controversy, protest and an unsuccessful lawsuit to maintain public free speech rights in the formerly public space.
Salt Lake City is again exploring the closure of parts of Main Street to vehicle traffic. A key distinction in that effort, however, is that Main Street between South Temple and 400 South would remain a public right-of-way, with all the constitutional protections of a typical public space, just one made more comfortable by the absence of car traffic. The Open Streets on Main program has tested this model in recent years, and Mayor Erin Mendenhall has advanced plans to permanently pedestrianize the downtown core.
Ironically, Main Street Plaza now functions as an obstacle to efficient cycling and walking paths, requiring burdensome detours to the car-dominated State Street and West Temple corridors. The proposed "Green Loop" around downtown would run along the north side of Temple Square, but direct access from that linear park space on North Temple to Main Street would be subject to the whims of church leadership.
As such, while they can never cycle across and can only sometimes walk across, Salt Lakers will always be able to look across Main Street Plaza, which is something.
About The Author
Benjamin Wood
Lifelong Utahn Benjamin Wood has worn the mantle of City Weekly's news editor since 2021. He studied journalism at Utah State University and previously wrote for The Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and Entertainment Weekly
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