Rocky admits flip-flopping on plaza

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson talks about the history of the Main Street Plaza and the legal issues surrounding its creation. Along with ACLU lawyer Stephen Clarkthe pair made their presentation Thursday at the University of Utah School of Law. (Paul Fraughton / The Salt Lake Tribune)

Seven years after he pushed to give up a public easement on the LDS Church's Main Street Plaza in exchange for a west-side community center, Rocky Anderson made a concession Thursday.

"It's true," the former Salt Lake City mayor said. "I flip-flopped."

But Anderson said he reversed course on the public right of way -- he earlier had stated that transferring the easement to the LDS Church would be a "betrayal" -- in order to broker peace in a controversy that had exploded into "almost religious warfare."

Anderson and Stephen Clark, the lead attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union's first lawsuit against Salt Lake City over the plaza, teamed up Thursday at the University of Utah's law school to deliver a behind-the-scenes look at the aftermath of the city's decade-old decision to sell a block of Main Street to the church.

The seminar will be repeated Tuesday.

"Thanks to all of you for coming tonight to what I've dubbed the Rocky Road to Redemption Tour 2009," Clark quipped.

Anderson recalled the divisions that erupted between Mormons and non-Mormons over the issue, which inspired some evangelical preachers to protest on the plaza and even hurl insults at LDS brides outside the church's downtown temple.

The controversy sparked two lawsuits.

The first, an ACLU win, upheld the public's First Amendment rights on the flowery plaza, which then contained a right to 24-hour public access but under strict

"TKO for Rocky," declared Clark, who did not litigate the second suit.

Anderson initially believed the city should abide by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' rejection of free-speech limits the LDS Church had placed on the plaza.

But he said Thursday he was inspired to compromise by the Rev. Tom Goldsmith, minister of the First Unitarian Church, which the ACLU represented in lawsuits against the plaza.

At a City Council meeting, Anderson recalled, Goldsmith asked, "If we can't find a solution to this problem, how can we expect peace to be reached in Jerusalem?"

Today, the plaza is private property -- with no public right of way. But it continues to raise legal dilemmas.

In July, a gay couple were stopped by LDS guards after the two held hands and shared a kiss the church deemed "inappropriate." Salt Lake City declined to pursue a trespassing case against the pair. The prosecutor cited the unclear nature of the church's rules governing the plaza, noting the couple and others perceived it to be a public space.

Some wonder whether the latest dispute will give rise to more explicit rules for the plaza or whether the church might someday gate it.

The incident also sparked "kiss-in" protests outside the plaza by demonstrators who perceived the LDS Church's treatment of the gay couple was discriminatory.

Clark questioned whether a similar incident could happen someday at the LDS Church-owned City Creek Center, a massive shopping and retail project rising a block south of the Main Street Plaza. The center, he noted, will restore a former public street that was obliterated by the now-demolished Crossroads Plaza.

"We have an ongoing opportunity to address the most important overarching issue that remains," Clark said. "How do we go about building an ever-more inclusive community together with respect for our differences?"

rwinters@sltrib.com