"The fear, I think, in a lot of people's minds, is that if you build a lot of new buildings, or you do some really fancy rehabilitation, it's not going to be affordable any more," Huffaker said. "A lot of times you can do a pretty basic rehabilitation to basic buildings but still provide a good upgrade and it can be affordable for existing tenants or businesses and not push those people out."

Raphael Cordray is one of those tenants. Cordray opened Free Speech Zone a little more than a year ago on Highland Drive, selling alternative and political T-shirts, buttons, stickers and gifts. She rents space from Mecham, who is the landlord to Blue Boutique, Sugar House Coffee and a string of adjacent businesses.

Cordray has no illusions, however, about what would happen if Mecham were able to revamp his holdings along Highland Drive.

"It doesn't matter what any of the people who are renters here think or want because they're not property owners," Cordray said. Redevelopment "makes it more profitable to tear this down and make it taller."

Mecham said that he would offer any tenant the first right of refusal on new space in any as-yet unplanned development. Besides, he said, many of the buildings are "very old" and require substantial costs to maintain.

"I can't afford to spend $200 a square foot to build something and then lease it to them for $10 a square foot. It would have to be more in the market range, which is anywhere from $20 to $30 a square foot," Mecham said. "I kind of like the local ma-and-pa type stuff. It is not my intent to go in and kick them out. Assuming that they can afford it — which, frankly, I kind of doubt it — I would in general allow them that first crack at it."

Simonsen wants Cordray and her colleagues such as Bob Evans, the owner of Sugar House Coffee, to have some way to stay in the area.

"It's pretty clear to me that during the reconstruction process we're going to have 40 to 50 merchants that have to be relocated somewhere," Simonsen said. "Is there a mechanism where we can provide for those merchants to come back somewhere?"

That mechanism might include money from the city's redevelopment agency (although nothing has been proposed yet, said Dave Oka, the RDA's director), or provisions for maintaining an affordable rent component in whatever the new development turns out to be. Simonsen said he might also zone down the density on the property but give incentives that would allow for increasing the density in the future.

Simonsen's plans have a ways to travel through the city process, though. Tonight he expects to broach the topic with other City Council members during a meeting at the Sprague Library in Sugar House, across the street from many of the local businesses in question. If the Council wants to discuss it further, staff members would draft a report for a briefing. After the briefing, council members might then ask the planning division and city attorney's offices for input. Before the council takes any formal action, though, it would hold public hearings and meetings.

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com