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

Anderson issued the veto Monday to challenge a vote by the City Council 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 do more harm to the historic nature of our downtown than just about anything that's happened there," the mayor said. "It would cheapen our downtown."

Five votes of the City Council are needed to override the veto. The council is expected to consider the veto at its meeting today.

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 connecting the the second level of shopping centers on one side of Main Street to the other 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.

"Why would we ever put in a skybridge, when it means taking people off the street? That's what council members need to be asked," Anderson said.

As an alternative to the skybridge, the mayor has suggested closing a section of Main Street to traffic between 100 South and South Temple to encourage pedestrian activity without impeding views.

"To build a huge mall and keep people enclosed in a gerbil-cage tube is something that might be OK in the suburbs, but it is absolutely the opposite of what we should be doing in the heart of our downtown," Anderson said.

The amendment to the master plan allows the council to approve plans for a skybridge as long as they have a minimal impact on view corridors, make use of urban design elements that integrate the project into the rest of downtown and do not stifle street-level pedestrian activity.

In a statement of objections, issued Monday, Anderson contends the amendment is "clearly at odds with the city's urban-development values and goals and is in direct opposition to the original intent of the master plan."

The original downtown master plan calls for preserving views from downtown to the mountains and major landmarks. The plan also prohibits "skywalks or other obstructions that would block views" from Main Street and three other downtown streets.

"The intent could not be more clear: Skywalks are prohibited on Main Street," Anderson said.

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Contributing: Doug Smeath

E-mail: jpage@desnews.com