The blueprint for the future of the Wasatch Front - from roads to shopping centers and town homes - is now in the drafting stage.

If you want a say, here's your chance. Wasatch Choices 2040 has planned five open houses, starting tonight in Sandy.

Local governments and transportation planners are collaborating through the quality growth, nonprofit Envision Utah organization. They seek to create a template for growth decades into the future with an eye on what types of communities Utahns would like to live in.

As a starting point, Envision Utah created four scenarios based on comments from about 1,000 participants in 13 previous workshops. The scenarios emphasize the main options supported by a majority of those who attended the workshops. One highlights transit and neighborhood villages. Another calls for superhighways and large suburbs. The workshops identified the questions but found it difficult to identify suitable answers.

Now it's up to the open house attendees, who will be asked to mix and match the best ideas from the scenarios to form one plan.

"This will help us make decisions today by having a more robust look at the future," said Chuck Chappell, executive director of the Wasatch Front Regional Council. The group is creating the long-term transportation plan for Davis, Weber and Salt Lake counties.

The regional council and the Mountainland Association of Governments, which creates the transportation plan for Utah County, will use the Wasatch Choices results as a starting point for their long-term planning.

A transportation project, whether it be light rail or a new highway, can't be built until it is on one of the long-term plans.

The next edition of the plans is due in 2006.

This is the first time the regional council and Mountainland have worked together for a valleywide proposal. This effort also marks the first time they sought public comment before having a draft in place.

But Ted Knowlton from Envision Utah said Wasatch Choices is about more than mass transit and highways.

"It's about growth, transportation and the environment and how they interact with each other," he said.

Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, who is the vice-chairman of the Wasatch Choices steering committee, said the new proposal will change the way cities and counties make zoning decisions, which in turn affect transportation and commerce.

In effect, managing growth will touch the lives of just about everyone along the Wasatch Front.

"It is going to affect how long it takes them to go to work and where they shop for food and clothes," Corroon said.

A Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted for Envision Utah shows Utahns are split on the expected growth, with 44 percent saying it is a negative, 45 percent saying it is a positive and the rest uncertain.

But the public would consider it overwhelmingly positive if the growth were managed properly, according to the poll.

That means new structures must work with historic buildings. Safe roads and bike paths must interweave through a variety of housing and shopping options, manicured with landscapes that conserve water.

Lofty goals, but then again, that is what Wasatch Choices is all about.

As Knowlton said: "This is a wide-open exploration that will result in a vision."

mcanham@sltrib.com

Wasatch Choices 2040 open house schedule

All open houses are from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

l Today, Sandy City Hall multipurpose room, 10000 S. Centennial Parkway.

l Thursday, Ogden Eccles Conference Center, 2415 Washington Blvd.

l Wednesday, Aug. 3, Columbus Senior Community Center gymnasium, 2531 S. 400 East (parking in rear).

l Wednesday, Aug. 10, Farmington City Community Center, 120 S. Main St., Farmington.

l Thursday, Aug. 11, Orem Senior Friendship Center, 93 N. 400 East, Orem.