To get Salt Lake City to give up its easement through the Main Street Plaza, the LDS Church said Monday it is willing to pay an undetermined amount of money and give up its right to proselytize on the property.
Elder Lance B. Wickman, the church's general counsel, says there could be more concessions.
"We're willing to talk to the city about what quid pro quo there might be for that [easement]," said Wickman, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Talk of possible concessions comes barely a week after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent out information packets to people in Davis and Salt Lake counties outlining its case for the easement.
Despite the campaign, Mayor Rocky Anderson has refused to give up the easement, partly because residents were promised a legal guarantee of passage through the plaza.
"I must say that any proposal short of what was agreed upon between Mayor [Deedee] Corradini and the church is asking for a very different deal than what the written contract provides," he said. "I find it extremely ironic I'm being demonized by a lot of people, including [former] Mayor Corradini and some officials of The Church of Jesus Christ, because I have refused to renege on a written contract that they themselves negotiated, drafted and signed."
While Anderson says he does not want to negotiate any compromises in the media, he adds that he does not support restricting the LDS Church's ability to proselytize.
"I would say that any restrictions on the LDS Church exercising religious freedom on its own property would itself be a violation of the First Amendment guarantee. I won't be a party to that."
The mayor also wonders why church officials would be willing to buy an easement that they say does not exist. The LDS Church has argued that when a federal appeals court ruled against church-sought restrictions on behavior on the plaza, it ruled that the easement was unconstitutional as well.
"If that were true, which clearly is not the case," Anderson said, "why would they be insisting on the return of the easement and why would they now be suggesting that they would pay a substantial sum for something they contend doesn't any longer exist?"
Anderson suggests "everybody" should relax until his office recommends constitutionally allowed time, place and manner restrictions for behavior on the plaza.
Wickman said Monday such regulations won't work because they will let people protest and leaflet on the plaza. "That's unacceptable to us."
The specific amount the church would pay the city for the easement would have to be negotiated, Wickman says. The funds -- a "gesture of good will" -- would be on top of the $8.1 million the church paid in 1999 for the block of Main Street between North Temple and South Temple.
As was the case three years ago, the city certainly could use extra money now. It has a $2.8 million deficit to plug.
"What I'm trying to communicate is that we're willing to have a discussion with the city about the conditions for extinguishing the easement," Wickman said.
Candidates for mayor in next year's election already have suggested some kind of exchange for the easement. David Spatafore says he would give up the right of way for the church's support on other issues, including hate-crimes legislation and looser liquor laws. Frank Pignanelli, a likely candidate, says he would give up the easement for money and would ask the church to allow quiet leafleting on part of the plaza.
Wickman did not discuss those ideas Monday.
The Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union declined to comment Monday about potential compromises. Earlier, ACLU representatives said the group could sue the city if it gave away the easement, based on the U.S. Constitution's establishment-of-religion clause. That clause says government cannot respect one religion over another. If the church paid for the easement, that claim would vanish.
"The next problem is putting a price on First Amendment rights. I don't know how you put a price on that. We, of course, think they're priceless," incoming ACLU Executive Director Dani Eyer said earlier.
The ACLU also maintains that even if the city sells the easement, the public would continue to have First Amendment rights there because the plaza is part of the city's pedestrian grid and it was formerly Main Street, a historic public forum.
Eyer said the church would virtually have to wall off the plaza to prohibit free expression there. "When they let people pass through, it's not clear the rights don't go with the people."
The church disagrees. Church officials mostly want to ban protesting, picketing and leafleting on the plaza, which they say they can do if the church gets the easement.
Wickman says the church would be willing to forgo proselytizing on the plaza in return. "We're willing to consider the plaza as some kind of a neutral zone. That is to say, we don't have any plans to be using it for proselytizing ."
He notes the church does not have missionaries passing out LDS literature or proselytizing there now. However, it does broadcast General Conference meetings on the plaza. It is unclear whether such broadcasts would stop under a "neutral zone."
The LDS Church may not be proselytizing on the plaza, but others are. On Saturday, Wickman says, groups passed out anti-LDS literature and some yelled from the plaza to bridal parties on Temple Square.