Rocky vetoes ordinance that would allow downtown skybridge

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has vetoed an amendment to the city's master plan in an effort to keep a skybridge from being part of downtown renovations.

Anderson issued the veto today to challenge a City Council vote that laid the groundwork for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to include a skybridge over Main Street in its City Creek Center development.

"A skybridge will tarnish the historic character of Main Street and downtown Salt Lake City," the mayor said in his statement of his objections.

Five votes of the City Council are needed to override a veto. The City Council may consider such a vote during its Tuesday meeting.

On April 18, the City Council voted 6-1 to amend the city's downtown master plan to allow for skybridges under some circumstances.

The City Creek Center developers — the LDS Church's real-estate arm, Property Reserve Inc., and retail partner Taubman Centers Inc. — say the pedestrian walkway is vital to the 20-acre project's shopping component.

Anderson and other critics of the plan worry that the skybridge will turn City Creek Center into an enclosed shopping complex and keep pedestrians from venturing onto Main Street.

"Having people visibly present on the street is the single most important ingredient in creating an attractive, vibrant, living place, where people want to spend time, linger and interact with their community," the mayor said.

As an alternative to a skybridge, Anderson has proposed closing a block of Main Street between 100 South and South Temple to motor-vehicle traffic. TRAX light-rail lines would still run down the block, but closing the block to motor-vehicle traffic would encourage pedestrian traffic on the street, Anderson has said.

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