The draft bill would designate more than 219,000 acres as wilderness, preserve utility corridors, create an off-road trail system, develop a new conservation area, protect 170 miles of the Virgin River, and sell to the highest bidder up to 25,000 acres of public land at fair market value.

So far, about 4,300 acres now managed by the Bureau of Land Management have been pegged for possible sale. The remaining 20,000 acres have yet to be identified. A local "quality-growth planning board" would nominate which public lands should be offered for sale, according to the bill's summary.

Fifteen percent of the land-sale proceeds would go to local projects such as the state school-trust fund, fire- and flood-control projects and the Washington County Water Conservancy District. The remaining 85 percent would be spent on land purchases to help preserve endangered species, capital improvements on various federal public lands and other unspecified conservation projects throughout Washington County.

While funding is not specifically allocated for the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, utility corridors are designated that would benefit the massive water project.

"We've never sat down before as a group to talk about where we want growth to go and what we want it to be," said Ron Thompson, director of the Washington County Water Conservancy District. "This bill maps out a regional and local plan for growth. It is a win-win, collaborative effort that serves the county as a whole."

However, some people across the state and nationally have voiced opposition to the bill. In a June 5 letter signed by 31 national conservation groups and sent to Bennett and Matheson, the lands bill is vilified as a "perverse incentive to liquidate our natural heritage when immediate financial demands arise."

Nearly two dozen letters to the editor, published in newspapers around the state, have criticized the legislation.

"If you have traveled to Washington County recently, you know that the place we knew and loved from a few years ago is no more," wrote Catherine Smith, of Kaysville, in comments submitted to the lawmakers. "The area is hardly distinguishable from the urban sprawl of the Los Angeles basin or Las Vegas. How does it benefit the public to expedite this growth by offering development inducements from any source, let alone from sale of public land?"

Glenn Rogers, chairman of the Shivwits Band of the Paiute Tribe of Utah, said the land-use bill raises a red flag for his people.

"What gets me is that developers want this land real bad," said Rogers. "They'll have homes building right next to the reservation."