Out in Herriman, the concern is how to build or widen roads in a hurry to keep up with the area's explosive growth. Herriman had a population of just 777 in 1999 but now boasts a populace of more than 15,000.

"We currently have our challenges," Herriman Mayor J. Lynn Crane told the gathering.

Herriman's growth has placed tremendous pressure on roads like 12600 South and 13400 South, he said, and a west-side highway — the planned Mountain View Corridor — is sorely needed. But while toll roads may be a popular notion in Utah today, that method of financing raises issues of fairness, Crane said. Why, he suggested, should Herriman residents pay for roads through tolls when residents elsewhere along the Wasatch Front didn't have to? A solution, he said, might be to give west-side residents a credit or discount on those tolls while having others pay full price.

Another way to make improvements could be through a regional or statewide impact fee, Crane said. Developers would pay the fee and the money would go specifically to transportation improvements.

The good news, the speakers said, is there are now plenty of ideas and a constant dialogue on transportation funding in Utah. But the thing to remember, Killpack said, is: "This kind of stuff can't happen overnight."

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