The city's downtown master plan, adopted in 1995, calls for, among other things, opening up downtown's large blocks.

"A system of center-of-the-block walkways should be developed to shorten the distance pedestrians must walk between locations and provide a secondary transportation system," the plan reads. "These walkways should be at ground level."

Chuck Klingenstein, president of the American Planning Association Utah Chapter, said it's difficult to criticize all enclosed mall projects because some have worked while many have failed. It's especially difficult to criticize the church's plans for downtown Salt Lake City because so little is known about the specifics. He agreed with Anderson that a public process and more information would serve the project well.

"The one thing I would like to see on this is a public process," he said. "Right now a lot of this planning has been done in a vacuum."

While a public process could open the project up for criticism, it gets many eyes focused on the project and would provide the developers with loads of free comments and information from professionals. Developers could use the good ideas and ignore the bad ones.

"You get a great deal of information from the best and the brightest, and it doesn't cost much," Klingenstein said.

City Council Chairman Dale Lambert agrees that the best thing the church's downtown development crew could to is release more information and take public comments in an open house-type setting. That said, Lambert believes the development crew is making the malls more open and pedestrian friendly, based on preliminary drawings he has seen.

"The conceptual plans I have seen I wouldn't dismiss as enclosed malls," he said. "Yeah, I think more openness and more public information would help. People would feel more invested and more excited about the new project."

Church officials and Taubman leaders have said they plan for a two-story enclosed mall with loads of glass storefront that will let a lot of sunshine and mountain views into the malls.

Anderson said initial indications were that the development plan would include opening up the two, 10-acre blocks and bring back midblock streets like Richards Street, which was buried under Crossroads Plaza. Now it seems that those efforts have been shelved, Anderson said.

In a May 2003 interview with the Deseret Morning News, the architect for the new downtown project, Ronald Pastore, principal of AEW Capital Management, said he envisioned the two blocks would become something akin to Davis Square in Somerville, Mass., a suburb of Boston.

The square is a walkable mix of of food, beverage, entertainment, retail and housing.