Most employment would be incorporated into residential areas rather than segregated into office and business districts, said Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates, the company behind Kennecott's plan. Dr. James Wood of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research said his group projects 106,000 jobs located along the newly developed west bench — though the entire project, including construction and other off-site jobs, could generate 262,000 new jobs in the county.

Calthorpe said the development will focus on affordable housing, with most neighborhoods a mix of everything from government-subsidized homes to $1.5 million homes, rather than segregated neighborhoods based on class and income level.

Of Kennecott Land's 93,000 acres, about 75,000 are included in the plan. The rest is in Tooele County or elsewhere and is not primed for development.

Calthorpe said 41,000 acres of that 75,000 would be developed. The plan calls for the other 34,000 to be open space, especially in the Oquirrh Mountains at areas with slopes steeper than 30 percent. There would be additional open space — such as parks and trails — within the developed area beyond that.

The development will open the Oquirrhs to recreation in areas that were once closed off because they were owned by Kennecott. One idea the plan considers for the mountain area is the possibility of skiing coming to the Oquirrhs.

"Balancing east and west in this community might be a really healthy thing on a lot of levels," Calthorpe said, referring to the perception that skiing is a pastime reserved for the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake Valley.

Calthorpe said the plan also holds out the possibility that areas now used for mining in Bingham Canyon and the land near I-80 currently used for tailings ponds could someday be developable, though that would require a lot of cleanup and testing and would be decades down the road.

Summit participants will spend the next two weeks mulling over the details of the plan. They will then return for the third summit to consider questions and concerns. Kennecott and Calthorpe hope they can incorporate that input into a revised master plan that would be presented at a summit in December.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com