Skybridge support high

Salt Lake City residents like the idea of a skybridge spanning Main Street as part of a major downtown renovation project, even if their support isn't as overwhelming as that of people who live elsewhere in the state.

A Dan Jones & Associates poll, conducted July 17-19 for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, found that 58 percent of people who live in Salt Lake City favor The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' plans for a bridge in the planned City Creek Center development. Only 25 percent were opposed.

The survey gathered the responses of 400 people living throughout the city and has a margin of error of 5 percent.

The numbers show clear support for the controversial bridge, which Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and urban-planning advocates warn could hurt downtown. But the city-wide survey results aren't as emphatic when compared to an earlier poll that asked Utahns statewide about the idea.

In that poll, conducted May 21-24, 77 percent of respondents said they supported the bridge — and 56 percent said that support was "definite." At only a slightly lower rate — 73 percent — Salt Lake County residents also supported the bridge.

Anderson and others worry the bridge will create a self-enclosed mall covering two blocks in the heart of downtown, benefiting the mall's retailers but keeping people off the street and away from neighboring businesses. Anderson has said he will do whatever he can to stop the bridge from being built, including selling a conservation easement for airspace over the street.

But officials with Taubman Centers Inc., the church's retail partner in the project, say the center depends on having two levels of shopping — a viable setup only if a walkway exists to connect to the second levels across the street.

The new poll shows Salt Lakers as more evenly split on the idea than people in the rest of the state. Although shoppers from outside the city are likely to visit the center when it opens in 2011, it is Salt Lake residents whose representatives in the City Council have ultimate control over the project's design and plans.

The council has already approved an amendment to the city's master plan to accommodate the skybridge. The master plan used to prevent skybridges over streets like Main but now allows for bridges to be considered if they meet certain conditions.

The council has yet to consider specific plans for the bridge, which Taubman officials are still working on.

The council district whose residents were least likely to support the skybridge is District 4 — the downtown district where the bridge would be located. Only 44 percent of District 4 residents said they supported the skybridge, compared with 36 percent who opposed it.