We can't go back, but the Salt Lake Chamber is taking a page from the past as it plans the capital's future.

On Wednesday, the chamber launched Downtown Rising, an effort to create a vision for downtown inspired by a similar push from the 1960s. Back then, businessmen crafted the Second Century Plan, which called for the landmarks seen today: Abravanel Hall, Main Street Plaza, the Salt Palace Convention Center, City Creek Park, TRAX.

For the new vision - which could call for an arts and entertainment district, a downtown circulator and a purpose for Main Street - the chamber even enlisted the man behind the first plan, Jack Gallivan, former publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune.

"There's need for rejuvenation," Gallivan said after the formal launch at the Alta Club. "There are many blighted areas of downtown Salt Lake. I'd like to see them replaced with housing and open spaces."

To kick off the plan, a group of "conveners" - business and community leaders - signed a charter, pledging support for the blueprint. Utahns also are invited to participate, whether or not they live or work in downtown.

"If you live in Davis County, we want to hear from you," said chamber President Lane Beattie, adding that while other Utah cities have their own city centers, "Salt Lake City is Utah's downtown. You can't be a suburb to nothing."

Business and property owners will dictate the plan, more so than the public or politicians. Some 70 leaders - representing everything from the Utah Jazz to The Boyer Co. to the LDS Church - were invited to lend their ideas and credibility to the effort. Many were at the launch Wednesday.

"Look who's in this room," observed Hamilton Partners' Bruce Bingham, pointing to people like Spence Eccles of the Eccles Foundation, Chris Roybal, chief economic development adviser to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and Clint Ensign, who oversees development for Earl Holding. "This is the beginning. We need this kind of support at the ending."

In the room Wednesday were top employers and decision-makers - mainly Anglo men. There will be more women and people of color in advisory roles as Cabinet members.

"Everybody's welcome to join us as partners," said Natalie Gochnour, the chamber's vice president of policy and communications. "Our goal was to go tap business and community leaders who will have as their goal a vision that speaks to the diversity of the area."

A draft plan will be released by July 31, and a final report will be complete by year's end. The impetus is the approximate $1.5 billion of investment that will happen downtown in the next five years.

The chamber says the final vision probably won't include as many projects as the earlier plan. It instead will outline broad principles, such as an arts district and better downtown transportation. An online survey on the chamber's Web site asks readers what new amenities they want to see downtown in 25 years, what they would change about downtown and what business leaders should do to improve it.

Design Workshop, a national planning and design firm with an office in Salt Lake City, will do much of the technical work.

Chuck Ware, a principal in the firm, said he and his team of urban-planning interns will pinpoint areas that make the most sense as urban neighborhoods with housing, open space and neighborhood retail.

"The west side of the city seems pretty well positioned," he said.

Main Street also needs focus, he said, even as the LDS Church plans to redevelop Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls. "There's a very unclear and uncommitted role for Main Street. It doesn't know what it wants to be."

One idea: Make it the center of activity, much like Denver's 16th Street Mall and Barcelona, Spain's Las Ramblas. Ware noted Salt Lake City already has focal points with Temple Square, The Gateway and the Main Library, but "tying them together seems to be a need."

No top official from the LDS Church was at Wednesday's launch, though the chamber's Gochnour expects the church will be involved. "We have representation from many, many entities in the business community, the LDS Church being one of the most important, largely because of their large land holdings downtown," she said.

Church spokesman Dale Bills, who was at the Alta Club, said the church is "still considering how it will participate in the Downtown Rising planning process."

Robert Lang, an expert on urban growth and director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, was invited to kick off Downtown Rising. He said Salt Lake City's downtown has "a lot of momentum," with its airport hub, light-rail network and the planned housing. Adding condos and apartments is critical, he said, to ensure downtown isn't a "make-believe land where people [only] go for conventions."

It also needs, Lang said, an identity - a "mixture of strategies . . . to create a product that's worth parking and coming to."

As the church redevelops the malls, Lang hopes they are inventive with the design, since enclosed malls in other downtowns have failed, as Crossroads and ZCMI can attest. "Anything that doesn't reintroduce the street is not going to work," he said at a community forum at the Main Library Wednesday night.

Downtown Rising may give a boost to one of Mayor Rocky Anderson's priorities for downtown: renovating Pioneer Park. Design Workshop created the park's redevelopment plan for the city, and Ware said Wednesday that public spaces are better investments than any one commercial project.

"A little bit of openness in the city is a magical thing," Ware said.

Lang agreed: "People come downtown to see people, not buildings."

Eccles said he is participating in the chamber's visioning effort because "it's our capital city and it absolutely needs to have a vision." While he said downtown is "reviving," it needs work. "It's going to take patience, perseverance, a lot of love and affection - and investment."

hmay@sltrib.com

For more information about Downtown Rising, visit http://www.saltlakechamber.org/policy/issues/downtownrising/index.asp

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How to help

To get involved with the plan, call the Salt Lake Chamber at 801-364-3631 or e-mail downtownrising@saltlakechamber.org.

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What's next

Fifteen interns for Design Workshop, a design firm, will devise strategies to enliven 40 blocks of downtown. The draft plan will be released by July 31 and the final will be done by year's end.

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Downtown Rising's objectives

On Wednesday, Salt Lake City's movers and shakers signed a charter pledging their support for a new vision for downtown. The signatories committed themselves to these aspirations:

l Common vision: While business leaders have their own ideas for downtown, they need one vision "that captures our desire for a prosperous future."

l Collaborative and inclusive: All those interested in downtown are invited to participate.

l Engaged leaders: The effort will "create an enduring legacy of prosperity for the next generation."

l Heart of the regional economy: Downtown will remain the economic, cultural, religious, commercial, legal, financial, transportation and governmental heart of Utah.

l Interdependence of the central city and surrounding area: Downtown and the suburbs "thrive best together."

lSolutions transcend political boundaries: Different boundaries for downtown exist, but "we choose not to limit ourselves to any specific geographic boundaries for downtown or the region."

l Business-led: Downtown needs regional business leadership to galvanize the commitment to a strong central city.

l Civic engagement: Residents will be asked what they want for downtown.

l Vigilance: The vision will be finalized by the end of the year and be continually updated.