WEST VALLEY CITY — Developers and architects planning a major overhaul of the city's downtown are almost ready to ask the city to sign off on the renovation's basic design.

Representatives from Callison Architecture and Woodbury Corp., one of the two primary developers of the project, foresee a mixed-use urban environment centered around an open-space commons area and a complex of government and municipal buildings filled with shopping, entertainment and as many as 1,500 housing units.

Woodbury vice president for development Lynn Woodbury said the vision, presented to the City Council and Planning Commission on Tuesday, would be "a real viable and exciting master plan for this area."

The redesign is for the area West Valley officials consider the city center — 258 acres in the area of Constitution Boulevard (2700 West) and 3500 South. Currently, the area features the rundown Valley Fair Mall, as well as a hodgepodge of retail stores and some homes and apartments.

Callison and Woodbury's vision puts the new single-family housing southwest of the retail hub, which would begin at 3500 South and Constitution Boulevard. The center of the project would run along a curved road with access to both 3500 South and Constitution Boulevard, with a number of other north-south and east-west roads running throughout.

The plan would "layer in a grid but not be slavish to it," Callison's Rod Johnson said Tuesday.

The interior roads would all have on-street parking, and developers expect the project to be car-friendly as well as walkable. It would be fed by an intermodal transit hub and a light-rail line — elements that are all up in the air as county transportation planners work on prioritizing projects.

The current government complex — City Hall, a 3rd District courthouse and police station at 2700 West and 3650 South — would have to be relocated, but Johnson said that could happen years down the road. The entire project would be phased in over time and could take 15 to 20 years to be finished.

In addition to the retail, residential and governmental elements, planners say it could also include educational institutions — maybe a university extension, maybe an urban high school. Tenants might also include professional and medical offices.

A pedestrian bridge spanning 2700 West would connect the second story of the new development with a plaza at the Valley Fair Mall, which is being developed by its owners separately but with the hopes of integration into the city center project.

The architecture of the buildings has yet to be finalized, because the project is more in its planning phase, but Johnson said he expects it to include a variety of design types, styles "that are appropriate to West Valley," rather than one consistent look. The idea, he said, is to create the air of an urban center that has grown up over time.

The plan shown Tuesday is preliminary, Woodbury said, although he expects it to closely reflect the plans the developers will bring to city officials for approval in the next 30 to 45 days.

The City Council earlier this month created a community-development area, a tool newly created by the state Legislature that allows the city to use anticipated future tax revenue to fund the project.

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