Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson - hoping to prevent a skywalk as part of the LDS Church's City Creek Center - wants to convey a permanent open-space easement over Main Street between South Temple and 100 South to some yet-to-be-identified entity.

Taubman Centers Inc., the church's partner in the $1 billion-plus downtown mall makeover, already has applied to buy the air rights over Main Street for a sky bridge. Developers see it as vital because it would allow shoppers to move from one side of the project to the other without treading out onto Main Street.

That's what Anderson and many urban planners fear: a skywalk sucking life from the street. So the mayor is looking for a way, any way, to bar the bridge.

"There is too much at stake for the downtown we all love and care for," he said Thursday.

But the City Council - which already has overridden an Anderson veto and amended the city's master plan to allow a Main Street skywalk - may have a say.

Deputy City Attorney Lynn Pace explained that when an applicant seeks to obtain rights of way - as Taubman has for the skywalk - the proposal must be approved by the council before the mayor can finalize an agreement.

"The council would have to say yes," Pace added. "And the mayor would have to say yes."

Anderson's plan seeks to circumvent the council.

Rather than sell the air rights, he said, "I think I can convey a conservation easement [without the council]. We're still looking into it."

Anderson is determined to block the sky bridge, no matter how council members vote.

"I don't care what they sign off on," he said. "I won't convey any of those rights [for a sky bridge]."

The mayor said the council - with the exception of architect Soren Simonsen, who voted against amending the master plan - was giving in to LDS officials despite overwhelming opposition from urban planners.

"This council would never have allowed an abandonment of this principle for Kem Gardner, Roger Boyer or Rick Howa," Anderson said. "I can't imagine they would allow a sky bridge for any other developer."

Although council members tweaked the master plan, they still must approve the proposed sky bridge, said Councilman Eric Jergensen.

That may come up for a vote this summer. Among other things, the council could lease the air rights over Main Street, rather than sell them outright, Jergensen said.

But any attempt to give up rights of way, including air rights above Main, must be considered by the council, he said.

"My understanding is that the property of the city cannot be unilaterally sold by the mayor."

Although the council had no knowledge that Anderson had approached the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land to buy an easement over Main Street, Jergensen said he wasn't surprised by what he characterized as an attempt to bypass the process.

"I had heard he was looking at a number of options to thwart the development."

The Trust for Public Land declined the offer, according to the mayor.

By contrast, Simonsen doesn't fault Anderson's tack.

"To me, this is no different than conveying an easement to preserve open space," Simonsen said. "And the mayor believes [a sky bridge] is not an appropriate activity for open space."

csmart@sltrib.com