The fight continues!

After submitting a new voter initiative to the Salt Lake City Recorders office, the City Attorney argues that it is “substantially similar” to the previous one we had submitted, and therefore under State code is not referable to voters. We believe this erroneous conclusion by the City is an attempt to quash our efforts to let the residents speak with their signatures, and ultimately their votes, regarding our irreplaceable historic theater.

The previous initiative would have only deemed the Utah Pantages Theater a City “Landmark Site”.  The new initiative will not only make the theater a “Landmark Site”, but will create a “Downtown Historic Theater District” as well as give the theater “Thematic Designation.” The new initiative will also add a specific protection in the zoning text itself that disallows the demolition of the theater except for catastrophic fire or earthquake, and even then, only with the approval of the City’s Historic Landmark Commission.  This is not only four times the protections proposed in the first initiative, but also three separate and different historic zoning protections for the theater, and by those measures alone the new initiative is substantially different from the previous one.

Our attorneys prepared and filed a petition for relief from this erroneous conclusion made by the City in the State court today and named the City Recorder, City Attorney, and the City itself as Respondents in the case. We have no doubt that the Courts will agree with us, the initiative should move forward, and that the voters will ultimately agree that the Utah Pantages Theaters should be saved and protected.

If you can help, please go to our GoFundMe page and donate so we can continue the legal fight that we believe the City doesn't think we have the will to engage them in, which we do, because we will not give up, because giving up on the theater is simply not an option.

Thank you all for your signature and your help, we really appreciate it, more than you know.