Some Visitors Welcome

No, that's not what the new signs at the Main Street Plaza actually say. I'm sure you could come up with your own suggestions for what the signs might say. Here is the actual text of the new sign wording dislayed at the entrances to the Main Street Plaza, per the Salt Lake Tribune and an accompanying photo.

                                     • Private Property •
The Church reserves the right to refuse access to any person for any reason.

That's the sort of welcome sign you get when you let a lawyer write it. In this case, the new wording came from suggested text supplied by the Salt Lake City Prosecutor's Office. The wording is not really intended to welcome visitors as much as to provide the legal basis for winning a trespass charge against, uh, unwelcome visitors. Of course, the signs do not create some sort of special right for the LDS Church. The property right the Church asserts when it ejects unwelcome visitors is the same property right you have to eject unwelcome visitors from your own property. The sign just satisfies a notice requirement given that some people might mistake Main Street Plaza for a public sidewalk or park.

Comments

[Peter]

The notice issue was likely an excuse on the part of City Prosecutor Sim Gill to decline prosecution, since at least one of the men (Matt Aune) admitted to protesting the termination of the public easement in 2003. Nevertheless, given the hostility to the Mormon Church expressed at many temple locations over the past year, these signs seem like a prudent precaution to me.

[Jettboy]

That is a pretty common sign, although it is usually seen at restaurants and places of commerce. A private property of non-commerce status usually says: Private Property. Trespassers will be prosecuted. This seems to be a sort of combination of the two. My own thoughts are that they should extend the gate that surrounds the main complex of Temple square.