The redesign of Boston's City Hall Plaza should have been one of those projects that was a win-win for all. Virtually no one thinks the Plaza as it now stands is worth keeping. Barren, inhospitable, cold — these are the adjectives residents and visitors alike attach to the place.

So when newly elected Mayor Tom Menino proposed remaking the Plaza, the idea was greeted with enthusiasm. An ideas competition added to the excitement as architects, designers and even school children dreamed up new uses for the space.

Yet today the whole process is mired in controversy. The Trust for City Hall Plaza, the privately controlled entity responsible for the Plaza's renewal, is criticized as closed and secretive, believed by some to be a front for private real estate interests. The hastily formed Citizens Advisory Committee is seen as ineffectual. The General Services Administration, owners of the abutting federal office buildings, is unhappy with the process and the results. And it now appears that a majority of the City Council is prepared to turn down the Trust's proposal if, as it appears, that proposal includes a hotel on the property.

It's a shame that it has come to this. City Hall Plaza does need to be remade, and the mistakes of the recent past shouldn't be allowed to stop its reinvigoration. Herewith some suggestions to get the process back on track.

Treat the Plaza like a park, not a development site. What is City Hall Plaza: a park or a development site? Listening to the Boston Redevelopment Authority one would think the latter.

The BRA's position hearkens back to the urban renewal plans of the mid-1960s. Those plans razed the entire West End and created Government Center. The BRA argues that the Plaza is part of that urban renewal district and as such is just another developable site.

This thinking permeates the way the BRA has treated the Plaza revitalization efforts to date. Indeed, it's clear that many from the City are completely bewildered at the controversy over building a hotel on about one-third of the Plaza. It is, they argue, just a development site.

Wrong. It may have been that thirty years ago, but over time it has changed. Today, most Bostonians regard the Plaza as a park, just like the Boston Common or Waterfront Park. Any proposed changes to that park are perceived the same way as people would react to changes to the Boston Common: they demand, first, public process, second, public consensus and, third, a commitment to keeping the entire space available to the public. So far, however, those three guidelines have not governed the planning process for City Hall Plaza.

Make over the Trust for City Hall Plaza. The Trust consists entirely of representatives from corporate Boston. Indeed, to be a member of the Trust one must be a Boston business and agree to contribute $10,000 a year to the Trust. Few doubt that business participation in Boston's civic affairs is crucial, but the configuration of the Trust takes this to an extreme by excluding all other interested parties. The Trust should be reformed. Businesses' role should be substantially scaled back — say to a third — and other interests brought in, including residents, historic preservationists, parks advocates and the like.

Plan the Plaza first, then figure out how to pay for it. Planning for the Plaza so far has focused on development of a hotel. The hotel in theory is needed to pay for the rest of the improvements to the Plaza. Of course, since no one knows what those improvements are, no one really knows what they'll cost.

The Trust needs to back off from its single-minded focus on the hotel and engage in a master planning process for the entire space. Once the space is designed, figure out how much it will cost and then find ways to finance it. Financing, by the way, can come from many sources: federal or state financing, parking fees from a below-plaza garage or a hotel built, perhaps, on some other BRA-controlled site.

Revitalizing City Hall Plaza is worth doing. But like all worthwhile things, it's only worth doing if it's done right.