A panel of Wasatch Front mayors and county commissioners gave final approval Thursday to a long-range transportation plan for the region, despite residents' concerns that the plan would harm air quality by emphasizing roads over transit.

Nearly a dozen people spoke against the plan during a meeting of the Wasatch Front Regional Council. The plan, which is known as a Regional Transportation Plan, outlines billions of dollars' worth of transportation projects to relieve congestion in five Wasatch Front counties over the next 23 years.

Most road or transit projects in these counties must be on a long-range plan before being considered for construction. The plan approved Thursday includes $14.4 billion for highways and $5 billion for transit. The plan will be updated in four years.

Dr. Brian Moench, a member of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, told the regional council that he believed building more roads would increase air pollution and thus increase the number of illnesses related to air pollution.

Moench said that at least 1,000 people die each year along the Wasatch Front because of pollution-related illnesses.

"This master plan perpetuates and exacerbates the propensity toward motor-vehicle travel," he said. "There is no safe level of air pollution in much the same way that there is no safe level of cigarettes for people to smoke."

Members of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Great Salt Lake, Utahns for Better Transportation and a new environmental group, Utah Moms for Clean Air, echoed Moench's concerns.

Marc Heileson, regional representative for the Sierra Club, said the plan seemed imbalanced in calling for the eight-lane Mountain View Corridor in western Salt Lake County, while not including a transit line in the area.

The regional council has included what it called a "placeholder" for the transit line, by allocating money to preserve land on which to build the transit line.

Heileson was pleased, however, that the regional council removed a possible regional road along Sheep Road in Davis County from the plan. Instead, the council decided to spend money to study whether a road could legally be built in the area. Sheep Road is west of the Legacy Parkway and was rejected as a possible route for the highway because of its proximity to wetlands used by migratory birds.

Sam Klemm, spokesman for the regional council, said his group would wait to decide on final plans until a study is completed by the Utah Department of Transportation and Davis County cities. The council is considering the road as a possible link from the Legacy Parkway.

In response to the concerns about air quality, Klemm said that the regional council was constrained by federal laws as to where transportation money could be spent.

Members of the regional council said they believe the plan they approved was balanced and fair. Midvale Mayor JoAnn Seghini said the council had helped to speed the time frame for when four new TRAX lines in Salt Lake County would be built.

"I agree the plan is not as good as it could be, but credit to the council, we have quadrupled the amount of money shifted to public transportation in recent years," she said.

To see a copy of the regional-council plan, log on to: wfrc.org.

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