Despite their own reservations and rules that forbid sky bridges on downtown's Main Street, Salt Lake City planners are backing the LDS Church's request to span the road for its new City Creek Center.

"We're generally OK with the sky bridge," Deputy Planning Director Doug Wheelwright said Wednesday. "They're doing a lot of things to make sure they don't kill the Main Street-level activity."

A skywalk would mark a major policy shift and apparently run counter to Mayor Rocky Anderson, who long has opposed such a bridge for fear it would suck life from Main Street.

The mayor declined to comment late Wednesday, saying he plans to read the planning staff's report this weekend.

The church - which plans an estimated $1 billion redevelopment that will include tearing down the ZCMI Center and Crossroads Plaza and adding new retail, a representation of City Creek and housing - has said a sky bridge linking the two blocks would be vital to the project's success.

Church officials and their retail-development partner, Taubman Centers Inc., have vowed the bridge won't harm Main Street. But opponents warn it would kill commercial activity outside the mall.

Now, city planners have bought off on the church's arguments that:

* Pedestrians need seamless access to both blocks.

* Most alternatives to a sky bridge aren't workable.

* An isolated span doesn't present the same concerns as a network of sky tunnels.

Still, the staffers have their worries about the bridge. With City Creek's proposed pedestrian galleria - running east to west at street level through the project - most of the retail would be oriented to the center of the mall blocks, not to Main Street. And the Transportation Department predicts the bridge would reduce the number of pedestrians crossing Main.

In addition, the galleria would not line up with the midblock crosswalk on Main, and the Utah Transit Authority rejected the church's attempts to shift the TRAX platform.

That means pedestrians would be more likely to use the sky bridge, the planning report says.

"It may be difficult to encourage pedestrians to use the north/south walkways and Main Street in significant numbers sufficient to benefit the other retail areas south of the City Creek Center," the report says.

The solution, Wheelwright notes, is for the church to provide strong retail and restaurant draws on Main Street. Still, the city will need to decide on the bridge before it knows the mall's tenants or final layout.

Next Wednesday, the Planning Commission is scheduled to vote on whether to recommend approval of the bridge. In past meetings, commissioners have expressed skepticism.

But few doubt the City Council - which has final say - ultimately will OK the bridge. Two council members have said as much, that they can't turn down such a transformative project built with private funds.

City Creek's two anchor tenants - Nordstrom and Macy's - have lobbied for the span.

They fear shoppers won't venture to the mall's second story if they are forced to take the stairs down to Main Street to cross the road. And Taubman officials maintain they "won't go forward as planned" without the bridge.

The church explored alternatives to a skywalk, but rejected such ideas as closing off Main Street or building a single-level mall or an underground walkway as impractical and unworkable.

City planners agreed, though their report noted the church hasn't demonstrated that a two-level mall would not work without a bridge.

Allowing the bridge would require a change to the downtown master plan. The plan now prohibits such skywalks on Main Street - along with State Street, South Temple, 200 South and 300 South - to protect views of the mountains and major landmarks.

The proposed master plan amendment would require the church prove a "compelling public interest" for the bridge by showing that alternative designs have been exhausted, that the skywalk won't "substantially impair" the view corridor, and that it will not detract from pedestrian or commercial activity at street level.

As to whether the bridge is essential to the project, the report says, "the planning staff does not have the expertise to definitively determine the answer to this important question."

hmay@sltrib.com

What's next

The Salt Lake City Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to recommend approval of the sky bridge. The commission will take public comment.