COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Suzanne Bitter and Kelvyn Cullimore Jr. are facing off in a seemingly normal mayoral campaign in this year's municipal elections.

They are both long-time residents, active in their city — the only glitch is that the city doesn't exist.

Bitter and Cullimore are not only competing to lead the city of Cottonwood Heights, they are racing to create it.

"How do you start a city? I mean, you don't even have a phone number or a pencil," said Liane Stillman, who faced the obstacles of starting a city in 1999 as the mayor of newly incorporated Holladay.

From creating a master plan to staffing city offices, the Cottonwood Heights mayor will be faced with the trials of a start-up business coupled with the charge to run a city of 34,000 residents looking to city leaders to make good on incorporation promises.

"Expectations are pretty high. They're expecting city leadership to smooth out those bumps," Cullimore said. "But start-ups are start-ups, and there will be a few rough patches."

Both mayoral candidates said they're feeling the pressure from residents to get the city up and running quickly. But time will be tight for the city's new mayor, with only a small window to get the city under way before official incorporation in January.

"If we don't do it right the first time, the ripple effect will be felt for decades," Cullimore, 48, said. "We're the ones that are going to float the boat. If we don't do it right, it's going to sink."

Cullimore and Bitter agree one of the most pressing priorities for the new mayor will be taking control of land-development decisions from Salt Lake County. Maintaining city control over zoning issues was a key reason for incorporation after a series of unpopular county decisions such as a large development at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon and the placement of several billboards along city streets.

"They didn't listen to the neighbors or anyone's opinion," Bitter, 40, said. "Now, when we say no, the buck stops here."

But with authority comes responsibility for mapping out a master plan for the city that stretches from the Holladay border on the north to the Wasatch-Cache National Forest on the east, 1300 East on the west and Creek Road to the south. Creating that plan means merging four general plans from existing community councils, a process that will demand a lot of compromise to balance commercial growth with residential quality of life, Stillman said.

Both Bitter and Cullimore support commercial growth in areas zoned for retail but are hesitant to change existing residential zones to allow more commercial.

"Every city needs commercial growth, but you have to do that wisely," Bitter said.