The church even has enlisted The Boyer Co., which is expected to sign an agreement soon to partner with the city to develop much of the project, including the area east of the 130-year-old chapel where the church wants to build a second chapel.

“Our position is: 'No, we don't have to have this [property],' ” Boyer President Steve Ostler said this week. “In communities, we need to respect those kinds of institutions that have been there a long time. They are part of the character of our cities.”

But Dave Harmer, Ogden's community and economic development director, said the city does not want to lose the revenue it could earn if shops and offices are built on the parcel.

“Maybe Boyer can give up the revenue stream easier than the city can,” Harmer said Thursday.

Harmer said he is trying to set up a meeting between Mayor Matthew Godfrey and Episcopal Church officials.

“We'd like to find some solution that would be both good for the city and good for the church,” Harmer said.

The city bought the defunct Ogden City Mall four years ago and demolished it, leaving a 21-acre piece in the heart of downtown. After years of delays and difficulties attracting developers, progress is finally under way.

Ogden's master plan for the new mall calls for a 16,000-square-foot parcel to be sold to the Good Shepherd, but the church wants the 10,000 square feet to the east as well, so it could build a larger chapel with parklike landscaping at the corner of 24th Street and Kiesel Avenue, the main north-south road through the development.

For two decades, the existing chapel, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was hidden behind the old mall's parking structure. The city tore down the part of the garage east of the church, and now church members don't want to be tucked behind a two-story retail and office strip.

They have found support among residents, who have been bombarding the church and City Hall with phone calls and e-mails.

The Rev. Adam Linton, pastor at Good Shepherd, said the city should consider the large number of people who visit the church daily for worship, music recitals and community meetings.

“Over 15,000 times a year we bring someone to downtown Ogden. It's not just Sunday morning. We're a seven-day-a-week operation,” Linton said. “From a financial standpoint, we represent a significant economic anchor.”

Harmer said the city's projections show the two-story building along Kiesel, with retail shops on the first floor and offices on the second, could draw $240,000 in lease revenue for the Boyer-city partnership each year. That's not counting the sales and property tax revenue.

“There's a lot of pressure to say we need to generate a revenue stream off this development,” Harmer said.

At a meeting last month, Harmer told the City Council that Boyer needed the parcel for the project to pencil out. The company changed its positions after lobbying by the church, he said Thursday.

But Ostler, the Boyer president, said, “Our position has never been that we want to stand in the way.” A project map delivered by Boyer to the city this week shows no development on the parcel the church wants, he said. “I'd feel bad if they couldn't do something there.”

What's next?

l The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board, is expected to vote Tuesday on a controversial bond package to build a high-adventure recreation center in the heart of downtown. Ogden officials see the center as a catalyst for other commercial development at the old city mall site.