The RDA spends certain property-tax revenues in the area on infrastructure improvements, such as the TRAX extension from the Arena Center to the Intermodal Hub. The RDA also built and owns the Gallivan Center.

In addition, property owners can get low-interest loans through the RDA for new construction.

The RDA began working on improving the Central Business District in 1982. The project is due to expire in 2040.

"This process takes a long time, putting in infrastructure and trying to provide incentives for private development, and in some cases buying land," says D.J. Baxter, the agency's executive director.

Yet one more set of boundaries for downtown comes from UTA, which defines the downtown Free Fare Zone as between the Courthouse Station at 450 S. Main and the Arena Station, at 350 W. South Temple.

The zone was negotiated between the city and UTA in the 1970s, when other cities offered similar free zones, then called "magic-carpet services," says UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware.

Even the City Council has dueling definitions of downtown. In 2003, the council adopted "The Future Economic Development of Downtown" policy statement that said Main Street is the heart of downtown. The statement defined downtown as extending from Temple Square on the north, The Gateway on the west, Trolley Square on the east, and the hotel district along 600 South to the south. The City Council has never officially adopted the chamber's Downtown Rising definition of downtown.

In 1995, the City Council adopted a master plan for downtown, which defined the Central Business District: South Temple to 400 South and West Temple to 200 East. The master plan also recognized a "larger area" of downtown from I-15 to 700 East, and from North Temple to 900 South — an area of associated industrial, service, commercial and residential users that support the core.

According to the count of the Downtown Community Council, almost 3,300 people live downtown. And by the ever-expanding definitions of downtown, their numbers likely will grow.

Christian Harrison, the community council's chairman, says he's open to that evolution: "We have no illusions downtown will remain this small."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com