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Saying it clearly is at odds with urban-planning values, Mayor Rocky Anderson on Monday vetoed the Salt Lake City Council's decision to amend the master plan to allow a sky bridge on Main Street.
But since the skywalk approval prevailed last month by a 6-1 margin, the council appears to hold a veto-proof majority. And members may vote tonight to exercise the override.
"It's highly likely," predicted Councilman Eric Jergensen.
Anderson hopes council members will read up on urban design before casting another vote.
"If they would actually study the issue rather than applying their intuitions, [there would be] a different vote," he said in an interview. "We need an authentic downtown streetscape - not a gerbil cage to keep people off the street."
Anderson insists a pedestrian bridge clashes with the city's long-standing commitment to protect view corridors and could undermine efforts to revitalize downtown.
"A sky bridge will tarnish the historic character of Main Street and downtown Salt Lake City," Anderson wrote in his veto message. "It will also negatively impact the view of Ensign Peak from downtown."
Last month, after lengthy debate, the council greenlighted the process to allow a skywalk, which is coveted by the planners of the LDS Church's City Creek Center.
The developers of the $1 billion-plus project - replacing the Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls - hope to connect both arms of their center by spanning Main Street between South Temple and 100 South.
The city's Planning Commission still must approve design details for the proposed bridge, with the final nod coming from the council.
Most council members agree that allowing the bridge for the mall makeover would help attract retailers. And, they say, if it were designed appropriately - complete with escalators to the street - it would not be a death knell for Main.
Anderson, who vowed last month to veto the move, disagrees.
"We are irresistibly drawn to areas that seem alive," his veto message reads. "On the other hand, empty sidewalks tend to remain that way."
The two-term mayor also has pledged not to sell air rights above that stretch of Main Street, meaning developer Taubman Centers Inc. must win approval from the next administration after Anderson leaves office in January.
"Whatever they [council members] do," the mayor warned, "I'm not going to convey any of the property rights away to permit that sky bridge."
LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills referred questions on the veto to Taubman Vice President Bruce Heckman, who could not be reached Monday evening for comment.
Council Chairman Van Turner says the veto comes as no surprise. At the same time, he notes the five votes necessary for an override appear intact.
"Pretty much everybody is in the same camp as when we first voted on it."
The lone council dissenter was urban planner Soren Simonsen, who argued that while sky bridges can work in inclement climates, they are not suited for Utah's capital.
Simonsen worries the master-plan changes don't go far enough to integrate consumers on the street with the commercial project, which developers expect to become a downtown hub.
Opposition to the bridge also has rained from academics and the architecture industry.
Even so, officials of Property Reserve Inc., the LDS Church's real-estate arm, maintain the pedestrian bridge is vital to the success of the 20-acre project. At least three prominent retailers, they say, may bail without the bridge.
But Anderson says the project simply will keep people inside and will mark a "tremendous regression in our efforts to enhance the vitality and the pulse of our city."
Instead of a skywalk, the mayor has called for closing that Main Street block to motor vehicles.
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* ROSEMARY WINTERS contributed to this story.
* The Salt Lake City Council could vote tonight to override the mayor's veto.
* The meeting begins at 7 at City Hall, 451 S. State St.