Late Wednesday night, after an hours-long meeting, the commission voted to recommend changing the city's downtown master plan to allow skywalks in certain circumstances.

To get its bridge to connect the Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls, the church will have to prove:

* The bridge won't substantially impact views.

* All alternatives to link major developments on both sides of the street have been explored and found unfeasible.

* The skywalk won't materially detract from pedestrian and commercial activity on the street.

The church hoped the commission would decide their proposed bridge meets those criteria. But the commission decided it doesn't have enough information to make that decision. Commissioners want to see a bridge design first.

The City Council will ultimately decide whether to change the master plan and approve the church's bridge.

"What we've been talking about is putting a shunt in to take some of the pedestrians out of the artery [of Main Street]," said Commissioner Kathy Scott, the lone dissenter. "I'm still struggling with the whole concept. In fact, do we want sky bridges?"

But Commissioner Susie McHugh retorted: "Times change. It's a new downtown. What's there isn't working."

Opponents fear the skywalk will keep people off Main Street and stop them from wandering to smaller shops outside the mall.

The church and its national retail partner, Taubman Centers Inc., tried to assuage the commission. They are planning an estimated $1 billion redevelopment that will involve demolishing Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls and replacing them with new retail and housing units.

"I don't see the sky bridge as suddenly sucking people off the street," said Mark Gibbons, president of the church's real-estate development arm. He said the bridge is necessary to ensure the second-level retail is accessible to shoppers and to create a unified mall that will act as a regional draw.

Main Street is the "heart and soul" of the project, said Bruce Heckman, Taubman's vice president of development. "Don't underestimate the power of gravity. People move down."

But some heavy hitters came out against the skywalk.

Stephen Goldsmith, former city planner, passed out a poster made 20 years ago to fight a sky bridge proposed for 100 South. The poster shows Brigham Young holding his head, standing in the midst of a dead downtown. "How can the same people who walked from Missouri to Salt Lake City" struggle with navigating Main Street? Goldsmith wondered.

Elizabeth Mitchell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects, said the City Creek design treats Main Street "like a problem child. A barrier . . .," she said. If the city does allow a bridge, she said it must be well-designed and become a "public icon."

Former commissioner and neighborhood activist Cindy Cromer said selling the church air rights for the bridge is akin to selling Main Street between South Temple and North Temple to the church for its Main Street Plaza. She suggested the city might build the sky bridge so it could ensure a workable design.

But Lane Beattie, president of the Salt Lake Chamber, said the new mall would help Main Street because it will draw people downtown. And he said the bridge would offer a view of the surroundings people don't enjoy now. "It's time for a change."

And Steve Scott, director of community development for Zions Bank, noted he had "never met a sky bridge I didn't like. We need one and we need a good one. It'll be a tourist attraction. It could be a tribute to the Olympics we had here."

The commission also recommended the council allow the church to construct a handful of median parking ramps. That will impact traffic. The city's transportation division said the changes would eliminate: one of three northbound lanes on West Temple; and one of two westbound lanes and one of three eastbound lanes on South Temple between State and Main. Four parking stalls also would be lost on South Temple.

There is concern among commissioners, and Mayor Rocky Anderson, that the public hasn't had a chance to comment on the proposals. In response, the church handed out a list of news stories printed about the project, along with a list of meetings it has held on City Creek Center.

Of the 980 comments submitted to the church about City Creek, few cared about the sky bridge, with 42 against the span, according to church-provided figures. More people were interested in recommending stores for the mall, such as Crate and Barrel, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales.

hmay@sltrib.com