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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Salt Lake City Council is moving forward on a plan to build a sports complex along the Jordan River.
On Tuesday the council unanimously voted to authorize the administration to spend $22.7 million to start work on a 13-field complex. Soccer parents have applauded the plans, saying there's a need for more fields for practices, games and tournaments within city boundaries.
"For a long time, Utah has been a net exporter of soccer dollars," said former Utah Youth Soccer Association president Paul Burke. "Families in our community have traveled to tournaments in other places and would love to have this facility."
But some conservationists said they worry about a loss of habitat for birds and possible flooding if the Great Salt Lake's level rises.
"It doesn't allow for the massing of birds that migrate together," former Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said. "As you shrink that down, what it does is creates a hardship on the birds so they don't really have a place to rest."
A public hearing on the issue was held last week.
City leaders have said they would create a buffer of 100 to 300 feet along the river. And an environmental consultant hired by the city said the loss of wetlands already overrun by invasive weeds could be mitigated by creating better wetlands on the river's east side.
Voters approved a multimillion-dollar bond issue six years ago.
Councilman Soren Simonsen called the 160-acre complex "the largest public space project the city has undertaken and arguably the most controversial."
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Information from: Deseret News
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
