HOLLADAY - For more than half a century, a 10-foot-wide protective strip of land has buffered residential neighborhoods at the southeast end of Cottonwood Mall.

Neighbors fear that the line of demarcation, inked decades ago in an agreement between the nonprofit residents' group, Cottonwood Inc., and the suburban Salt Lake Valley mall's original owners, won't be enough to protect them from the current owner's ambitious plan to remake the 68-acre mall area into a high-density, mixed-use development.

"At the end of all this, we hope to still be living in a quiet neighborhood," said Holladay resident Steve Glaser. "We see a small city being proposed" for one of the nation's first malls built west of the Mississippi River.

While Chicago-based General Growth Properties has not released final numbers, a spokesman at a July news conference lobbed the figure of 500 residential units. Retail space, restaurants and offices also are planned around a rerouted Big Cottonwood Creek.

Glaser and his wife, Camille Pierce, have lived in a 60-year-old home on Arbor Lane for nine years. During that time, he said the declining mall and adjacent homes have compatibly coexisted.

The old agreement prevents any ingress or egress along the mall's southeastern edge. It also prohibits any construction on mall property within 100 feet of the buffer.

Area resident Jay Todd, a Cottonwood Inc. board member, asked city officials at last week's Redevelopment Agency meeting for more time to negotiate a new buffer agreement with General Growth Properties.

That plea came as the Holladay City Council, acting as the RDA board, tried to nail down final boundaries for the urban-renewal project.

Todd said that Cottonwood Inc. likely would be willing to allow General Growth to build residential - but not commercial - structures within 100 feet of the strip. The two entities are talking, but have not yet reached full consensus, Todd added.

The mall's general manager, Spence Angerbauer, told the City Council that General Growth has been working with Cottonwood Inc. for about two months and drafted a legal document to address the group's concerns.

"It's always been our intent to protect the neighborhood, and we want to move forward with our plans as soon as we can," Angerbauer said. But he acknowledged the two sides still have disagreements.

For example: "Cottonwood Inc. wanted to serve as an advisory board to oversee the mall development, and we have a large problem with that," Angerbauer said. "They're also requesting we pay all their legal fees. We don't agree to do that."

General Growth would be willing to extend the protective strip from Murray-Holladay Road to Highland Drive and would bar any commercial buildings within 100 feet, Angerbauer added.

But, he warned, "If we can't get an agreement, it changes things significantly."

Most of the City Council leaned in General Growth's favor, with Councilman Lynn Pace labeling the mall redevelopment as "the most important project to be done in the city in 50 years."

Todd doesn't argue with that.

"The neighborhood doesn't want to be an obstructionist to something we believe is important to our city. But no one is prepared to roll over and lay down," he said.

Homeowners Glaser and Pierce have attended city meetings since July, hoping to get enough information to assess the project's impacts on their neighborhood. Now they fear that time is running out.

"They've been keeping project details close to their vest until they get ready to announce," Glaser said.

"And until they do, we can't address the good and the bad of the project."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com