Flynn noted that site selectors and companies scouting for land are doing their work faster than in the past and want fewer "surprises" as they pick where to locate. By the time they contact EDCU for information, they likely have narrowed their choices to a handful of cities and perhaps even specific sites, he said.

Jeff Edwards, president and chief executive officer of EDCU, said the site selector community is small — perhaps only about 1,000 in the United States — but they account for 75 percent to 80 percent of site inquires to EDCU. The remainder come from individual companies, he said.

"This is essentially ... how do we get them here on the ground?" Flynn said. "Do we present enough information to them on enough sites that they can say, 'You know what? There's three sites. They're viable, I've got the questions answered I need. Let me go take a look at Utah.' ... What we're talking about here is what I call a first or second screen, (that) it's worth coming to Utah to take a look at the site."

As an example, Utah has one location with 1,200 feet of frontage along an airport with a 7,500-foot runway. "You're not going to find a lot of sites like that probably in the country, and we want to make sure that the consultants are aware of specific details and why these sites are important," he said.

Flynn said the next steps in SURE Sites' development are a marketing campaign to boost awareness, minor changes to the application, increasing mapping functionality by perhaps adding topographic and elevation information, and increasing the number of sites. This year's focus is locations for possible industrial and office development. Next year could see a similar program for existing buildings.

Partners in the program include GOED, Rocky Mountain Power, GIS Planning Inc. and the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com