City OKs skybridge

Score one for the Main Street skybridge.

The Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday approved 6-1 an amendment to the city's downtown master plan that lays the groundwork for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to start designing a bridge as part of its downtown renovation plans.

The plan is controversial, and critics include Mayor Rocky Anderson and many residents and students of urban planning who have spoken at public hearings. They worry it will make City Creek Center a self-enclosed shopping complex that will not do enough to revitalize Main Street and the surrounding areas.

"I think fundamentally the approach that recommends the skybridge is the wrong approach for our community," said Councilman Soren Simonsen, who cast Tuesday's sole "no" vote.

The council has hashed out the proposal in several meetings in the nearly five months since the Planning Commission passed on its recommendation that the master plan be amended.

The church's real estate arm, Property Reserve Inc., and its retail partner Taubman Centers Inc. say the pedestrian walkway would be vital to the 20-acre project's shopping component. Without it, second-floor stores would not be part of a continuous pedestrian loop and would suffer, they say, and anchor department stores and other retailers may drop out of the project.

"This is a constructive step," PRI attorney Alan Sullivan said after Tuesday's vote. "It's certainly a necessary step before we can go forward with the project."

The amendment went through almost a dozen incarnations, with everyone from the Planning Commission to city staff to the developers to individual council members making suggestions for new wording. Now, the project's designers will have to draw up a skybridge plan that meets the criteria in the amendment.

The amendment allows the council to approve plans for a skybridge if they can be shown to have a minimal impact on views, make use of urban design elements that integrate the project into the rest of downtown and do not stifle street-level pedestrian activity.

But in recent months, the council has tried to craft specific language to guide planners in their designs, while remaining general enough that the master plan can be applied to any future proposals.