Lynn De Freitas, executive director of Friends of Great Salt Lake, along with Marc Heileson, regional representative of the Sierra Club, say they are keeping a close eye on development plans in the quadrant, which includes wetlands and flood plain.

"We should try to consolidate and concentrate our growth around city centers that are already there in place and actually look for enlivenment and development potential there rather than continuing to go further and further away from those areas where we work and where we play," De Freitas said. Christensen, whose council district includes the northwest quadrant, expects the master plan will be complete in two years, and the council could change zoning by then. After some development work, he expects the city could start seeing homes there five years from now.

Buses could serve the area until light rail became an option, and some of the housing could be clustered in transit-based quarters, Christensen said. It makes sense to plan the community because if Salt Lake City doesn't do it developers will probably gobble up land even farther west outside the city's borders and design it as they please, Christensen said.

Still, there are problems with such distant development, like how the city can afford to reach the distant neighborhoods with police, fire, sewer and other services, Seed said. Those costs cost may prove too much for the already cash-strapped city to bear.

Anderson has fought against far western development before. In 2000 he successfully killed a plan to build a huge new shopping center on 5600 West, saying it was a "sprawl mall."

That said, Anderson is concerned about the city's shrinking population.

In his 2004 State of the City address, the mayor said Salt Lake City would have to compete tooth and nail with the suburbs to attract new residents.

"If Salt Lake City's population growth lags behind that of other communities, each new decade will bring a new loss in the city's political representation at the state Legislature," Anderson said. "Numerous funding sources, including HOME and CDBG funds, are allocated to some degree based on population."

Over a year ago Anderson told the City Council that "this spring, we will be bringing to you an action plan to attract at least 15,000 new residents to Salt Lake City in the next seven years. This will be an ambitious and challenging project, requiring a mix of new housing, different types of residences, zoning changes to allow higher densities, marketing and quality-of-life improvements that will attract new residents."

That action plan has never materialized, and Anderson said several months later it wasn't a plan as much as stating principles of higher-density zoning and walkable communities.