A driving tour took legislators through Salt Lake City's northwest quadrant, where planners envision an "aerotropolis," a mixed-used development on approximately 1,900 acres southwest and northwest of Salt Lake International Airport.

Legislators also visited Daybreak, Kennecott Land's master-planned development on the west bench, some of them for the first time.

"To see the massive land and the way it's all been master planned is wonderful," said Rep. Julie Fisher, R-Fruit Heights. "It would be amazing if we could do more of this (elsewhere in the state)."

Before the first part of the Davis tour got under way on Wednesday, a brief brouhaha took place over lawmakers carrying concealed guns. Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, and Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, left their tour bus to deposit firearms in a waiting vehicle with the license plate "GUN LAW."

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, also turned their handguns over to National Rifle Association lobbyist Clark Aposhian, who stored them in his car until the tour was finished.

Various other lawmakers joked about "leaving your guns at the door" before visiting the Chevron refinery in North Salt Lake. The refinery is a national security site, and firearms aren't allowed inside the gates, refinery officials said.

The legislative stops in Salt Lake and Davis counties did not include a town-hall meeting with local residents, although it has been custom to hold those meetings in previous years' visits to other parts of the state. Sources told the Deseret Morning News that some legislative leaders didn't want to give residents in heavily Democratic Salt Lake City an opportunity to publicly lambast the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Instead, residents interacted with lawmakers online, with questions and comments posted at www.utahsitevisit.com. Several residents questioned lawmakers about air quality.

"The air quality in the valley is so horrible that I am considering moving away," John Tella, a pilot from Salt Lake, wrote to legislators. "There is no plan in the near future to even address this."

In response to those residents' comments, Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, said, "We have serious and growing air quality issues in the Salt Lake Valley." To combat the problem, McCoy said, tax incentives for low-emission, high-efficiency vehicles should be expanded, as well as the community's mass-transit system and bike trails.

"We need to be bold and creative and work together to start modifying people's behavior and our living arrangements in order to balance our growing populations and the need to protect our health, environment and scarce resources," McCoy said.

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Contributing: Joseph M. Dougherty, Associated Press

E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com, jpage@desnews.com