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Mormon church now a party to U District light-rail talks
It opposes student center as site for station entrance
Saturday, March 18, 2000
By GEORGE FOSTER
The Mormon church has turned up as a third party in complex negotiations between the University of Washington and Sound Transit over light rail in the University District.
UW physics and fisheries professors worry that the agency's tunneling and train operations will damage vibration-sensitive research.
Administrators foresee traffic jams and unwieldy relocations.
But UW and Sound Transit agree the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints student center on 15th Avenue Northeast would be a good place for an entrance to an underground Pacific Street station.
Think again, says Gordon Conger, retired Seattle attorney and LDS leader.
LDS officials oppose relocating the 40-year-old church and Institute of Religion, used for worship, classes and recreation by hundreds of Mormon students. Weldon Ihrig, UW's executive vice president, yesterday said the university has offered the services of its real estate office to find the LDS center another location.
But Conger said the church wants to stay put.
"We're not going to sue anybody, but we will defend with all the resources available" the church's right to remain there at the corner of 15th and Northeast Pacific Street, Conger told the UW Regents.
Referring to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Conger said "we believe there is a free exercise of religion issue here" that prohibits taking church property. Conger said the church isn't being stubborn, but there are no other suitable properties nearby.
Bob White, Sound Transit executive director, noted his agency has until April 1 to reach agreement with the university on a station site.
There is an alternative site for the north entrance: land north of the LDS center and immediately to the south of Gould Hall, home of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning and site for future expansion of the building. It would cost Sound Transit more money.
Jeffrey Ochsner, the Architecture Department chairman, argued against the Gould Hall site at yesterday's meeting, saying it would be cumbersome to incorporate a three-story-high station entrance into the addition.
After hearing others speak on the inefficiency of combining a station entrance with a Gould addition, former Gov. Dan Evans, a UW Regent and one-time civil engineer, voiced frustration.
"Good God," he said. "This (Gould Hall) is the School of Architecture. We should be able to figure out something real smart."
P-I reporter George Foster can be reached at 206-448-8341 or georgefoster@seattle-pi.com
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