Wasatch Choices 2040, a unique partnership between the Mountainland Association of Governments, the Wasatch Front Regional Council and Envision Utah, is exploring how the form of future land development might help solve our transportation challenges.

The form of growth affects the need for expanding transportation infrastructure. For example, residential development that is far away from employment and shopping centers tends to make trips longer. Greater travel distances per driver create more traffic on our streets. Development patterns impact residents beyond congestion and transit use.

That is why an exploration of the growth patterns we want for the future also should consider how communities look and feel and what the impacts will be on convenience, air quality, water use, critical lands and more.

We create the future with decisions we make today. These decisions will affect the quality of life that we leave to future generations. Wasatch Choices 2040 is a dialogue involving the city and county governments of Davis, Salt Lake, Utah and Weber counties to explore a variety of potential futures relative to growth patterns, transportation solutions and the environment.

By understanding the needs of the region's future, we can work backward to the decisions we need to make today.

By 2020, the Wasatch Front's population is expected to be the same as San Diego today, and by 2050 what Philadelphia is today. Growth in our region is largely inevitable; state government estimates three-quarters of the increase in population will come from our own children and grandchildren. Our challenge, then, is to preserve or even enhance our quality of life in the face of growth.

Earlier this year, 1,000 residents and many local elected officials of Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties participated in the 13 workshops of the Wasatch Choices 2040 project and voiced their preferences for future development, open space and transportation.

Our staffs, and that of Envision Utah, took the input received at these workshops and developed four potential scenarios of how the region could grow over the next 35 years.

Each scenario reflects choices that would affect our quality of life in different ways. Later this year, the mayors and elected county officials on the Wasatch Front Regional Council and the Mountainland Association of Governments will decide how to incorporate this visioning study into the Regional Transportation Plan.

As part of this process, Dan Jones & Associates surveyed 703 Wasatch Front residents to gauge their opinions on growth. With a margin of error of 3.8 percent, significant findings include:

77 percent had a positive attitude toward growth "if future growth were guided effectively by the principles you favor."

l 80 percent of residents feel it is a high priority or a very high priority that their local government cooperates with other cities and counties in the region in addressing growth issues.

l 76 percent of residents feel it is important or very important that their cities coordinate local growth with regional transportation plans.

We invite you to attend one of five upcoming open houses to comment on the four scenarios and to let your elected officials know which you think our region should choose. Information on these open houses and the Wasatch Choices 2040 process can be found at http://www.envisionutah.org/wc2040.

Incorporating the best ideas from Wasatch Choices 2040 into the Regional Transportation Plan will help us preserve mobility, sustain economic growth and maintain our unique Mountain West lifestyle.

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Darrell Cook and Charles Chappell are, respectively, the executive directors of the Mountainland Association of Governments and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, which are responsible for our region's official long-range transportation plans.