Although several blocks of Salt Lake City will become a construction zone during the next five years, consultants working with the LDS Church on redevelopment plans say it won't be the death of downtown.

Access will still be available to businesses and major event centers in the area, said Bill Knowles, who manages W.A. Knowles Co., a consulting firm. Streets, including 100 South, Main, West Temple, State and South Temple, will remain open, and parking will still be available.

"We're very cognizant of the impact on traffic and access and parking," Knowles said in an interview Tuesday. "We're not throwing a blanket over the project and saying 'go away."'

Even so, people traveling and working downtown will have to make adjustments.

Top issues with accessibility include parking, pedestrian and business access and perhaps some gridlock on the roads. The Utah Transit Authority said Tuesday that it had not been contacted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about how plans would impact TRAX, which runs down Main Street through the middle of the redevelopment project.

Church officials said TRAX would remain open but that the City Center station, which currently serves the two downtown malls, could potentially be closed.

James Wood, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah, said accessibility should be a priority now that plans for the redevelopment have been announced.

"You want people to continue to come downtown," he said. "Thankfully, The Gateway should help preserve that. And I do think that people have become accustomed to it there and that it's doing well. But there's no doubt that for the Main Street retailers, it will be a challenge. It will be a challenge for them to maintain their positions."

Tony Weller, owner of Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore on Main Street, said he isn't too concerned about the fate of his business.

"They're close, but not close enough to really harm us," he said.

For now, preparations are being made to educate residents about where they can park when traveling downtown and what streets they can use.

While the redevelopment project will take five years, the church anticipates that parking spaces within the project may be made available sooner, said Bishop H. David Burton, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during a meeting Tuesday before the Salt Lake City Council.

But no plans have been announced about how parking will be addressed for major events such as viewing the lights on Temple Square or the LDS General Conference, which draws some 21,000 people downtown in October and April. Many of those people use the ZCMI Center and Crossroads Mall for parking.