Council members did not even vote on it.

Instead, they agreed to engage Salt Lake City's Redevelopment Agency to try to push a June 2008 deadline on holding a downtown parcel near Pioneer Park for a future aquarium. The idea: buy time to find a funding solution, while scrutinizing how feasible a 90,000-square-foot sea feature is in arid Utah.

"Now is not the right time," said Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, who publicly questioned why representatives from the capital, including the mayor, City Council or chamber, were not present Tuesday. "It's got to shake out a little bit."

Even so, Councilman David Wilde said aquarium executives have worked "the hardest" among all the parties vying for space on the ballot.

"I just hate to see this thing go down in flames," said Wilde, adding that perhaps a "patchwork solution" could be brokered to put the aquarium on the ballot in two years.

Wilde also complimented the aquarium board for its decorum throughout the discussions - a veiled shot at Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts, who criticized Wilde personally after he cast the decisive vote last month to kill a stadium funding plan for Sandy.

"People were just down and dirty poor losers," he said about RSL officials. "It's nice to be dealing with people" who show the council respect.

After the setback, aquarium board members were disappointed but gracious.

"We believe the right thing to do would be to allow the voters to decide for themselves," said David Wolf, vice chairman of the aquarium board. "We thought we had done enough to deserve that opportunity."

Still, added Wolf, "we look forward to working with them in the future to bring something great to our community."

Brad Carroll, another board member, notes lines at the aquarium's temporary digs in Sandy extend out the door Saturdays and that 330,000 visitors have come to see the fish over the past two years.

The aquarium has a three-year lease for the Sandy location, says Carroll, who still is collecting data on whether that suburb could be a long-term solution.

But several council members have doubts about rosy attendance projections and the level of public support for a venture Wilson called "high risk."

"I have yet to have one [resident] ask me to put the aquarium on the ballot," said Councilman Michael Jensen.

Wolf agreed Tuesday's message was indeed better than a "no" vote.

"Not only will we press on," he said, "but we can continue to thrive."

djensen@sltrib.com

In other county business

* Three bond items (open space, new TRAX lines and projects for the Zoo, Arts and Parks tax) received formal language for the Nov. 7 ballot. If approved by voters, the items would total just over $1 billion, costing residents $133 more a year in property taxes on an average $200,000 home.

* An updated master plan for the Salt Lake Valley Landfill suggests that, at the current pace of waste collection, the landfill's life has been reduced to 49 years.