LAYTON -- When it comes to population, the Top of Utah figures to be a completely different place 30 years from now.
The Wasatch Front Regional Council, a transportation planning group featuring 18 voting members who serve as local elected officials throughout the region, predicts that, by the year 2040, Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties will see a combined population increase of 1.1 million -- a 70 percent jump from the region's current population.
Morgan and Tooele counties will see even higher growth rates, according to the WFRC.
"There is no question about it. Over the next 30 years, the population along the Wasatch Front is going to explode," said WFRC spokesman Sam Klemm. "To accommodate the kind of numbers we are expecting, we need to not only plan now, but do it in an efficient manner."
To plan in that efficient manner, the WFRC has developed a draft vision of what the Wasatch Front could look like in 30 years.
The draft vision breaks down what individual cities' population densities should look like and how to best develop communities with viable options to walk, bike and use public transportation.
The draft vision, titled Wasatch Choice for 2040, was designed by the WFRC with input from city and county planners and elected leaders throughout the region.
Klemm said staff also collected all of the city and county general land-use plans.
According to the draft, in 2040, Salt Lake City will be the state's only metropolitan area, but both Ogden and Layton will become urban centers, which means 20 to 100 housing units every acre.
Pleasant View, near U.S. 89 and the FrontRunner station, and South Ogden, near Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital, are projected to be town centers with 10 to 50 housing units every acre.
"Weber County is an interesting place," said Chuck Chappell, WFRC executive director. "There are a lot of interesting things happening there and a lot of opportunity for growth."
As part of the plan, WFRC staff is also recommending a set of regional growth principles they would like city and county leaders to adopt.
"We're talking about things like centering commercial areas around key highways and boulevards," Chappell said, "or developing in areas that have been kind of abandoned, like an old industrial yard or something."
Chappell said certain land-use patterns are more transportation-efficient and, consequently, more cost- effective than others.
"Appropriate land use will help facilitate the major transportation investments that we will need to make in order to accommodate those million-plus new residents."
The draft vision will be available for public comment through March 12 and can be found at www.wfrc.org.
If the draft is adopted, it will serve as the foundation of the update to the Regional Transportation Plan that must be adopted by May 2011.
The Regional Transportation Plan serves as the template for all major transportation investments in the Wasatch Front urban area.
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