SALT LAKE CITY — For the past four years, Fleet Block has been a mural in the Granary District to remember those who lost their lives in incidents with police in Utah and across the country.
The ten-acre area between 300 and 400 West and 800 and 900 South was once used as a city fleet maintenance facility.
The building now features over twenty murals of people who have been killed by police or died in police custody.
Back in 2023, the Salt Lake City Council voted to rezone the block.
Families with loved ones memorialized at Fleet Block met with the city in a meeting Thursday night to discuss future plans. Media was not allowed in.
Approximately five acres of the space will be developed and around three acres will be a public space. That's where the city said it plans to create a place "inspired directly by the social justice significance of the murals."
The Black Lives Matter Utah Chapter has been advocating for the families who want a permanent memorial.
Salt Lake City has committed specific large-scale arts funding to commission public art for the open space. That art will serve as a monument to social justice.
Families will be able to be part of the artist selection process and the development phases. The city described family involvement like "deeply involved stakeholders."
"Those spaces mean so much to us. People don’t understand unless your family, but that has been a healing space, and a conversation space, and an awareness space, and a translucent space. We all join there and we understand one another when nothing else makes sense," said Gina Thayne, the aunt of Dillon Taylor.
Taylor was shot and killed by South Salt Lake Police almost exactly ten years ago.
Thayne said they were told Fleet Block will be demolished first thing next year. FOX 13 News is still waiting for that official timeline from the city.
