Local residents ought to buckle their seat belts. The destiny of Utah Lake and development on the west side is being mapped out now, and it's going to be quite a ride over the next couple of decades.

• The Utah Lake Commission is writing a master plan meant to guide government, business, and individuals in pursuing development around the lake. The plan is scheduled to be ready by the end of the year.

• The Mountainland Association of Governments is putting together a Utah County east-west study on traffic flow, to be presented to the Legislature in the fall.

• The Utah Department of Transportation, which begins its own analysis of the Utah Lake in July, is focusing on transportation options and environmental impacts. State Reps. Steve Clark, R-Provo, and Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, obtained $3 million in the state budget for that study in the last legislative session.

Apparently, state lawmakers understand the importance of the lake, not only to the future of Utah County but to the future of the whole Wasatch Front.

All three plans are still in the vision stage, and those involved declare that any and all possibilities are still up for grabs. Yet ideas are forming, and some of those will become reality.

The Lake Commission's public meetings to date have brought out a host of competing views, including the option of doing nothing. All three groups are soliciting public feedback on their approaches, which not only envision what the lake itself can become as a recreation center and ecosystem, but how the west side should develop.

Here's one vision that excites some and may worry others who are squinting into the future: The vast area west of the lake -- Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Fairfield, Cedar Fort and other Cedar Valley locations -- will see explosive growth.

In 2000, about 3,000 people lived west of Redwood Road. Now, in less than a decade, the population has grown to about 30,000, a growth factor of 10. Planners think that by the year 2040, a quarter-million people will live there. Imagine taking a population equivalent to today's Davis County and plunking the people down in Cedar Valley. That's what is coming.

How in the world will the region cope with such an influx of people west of Utah Lake? The answers are being worked out, but it's certain that transportation will be critical.

MAG's Utah County east-west study draws on figures that show that daily auto trips from the west side of Utah Lake to the east side totaled a bit more than 18,000 in 2005. That number will explode to more than 140,000 by 2040.

You say you never drive to the west side of the lake? Maybe not. But this isn't only about getting from Eagle Mountain to Provo; it's about traffic throughout Utah County. Like the old ditty about the hip bone being connected to the thigh bone, traffic flow in one part of the county affects other parts. It's all joined in a single circulatory system. Congestion spreads, as drivers who use Lehi's Main Street have discovered.

Of course, the adoption of any future proposal will involve complex politics. The Lake Commission alone represents 20 towns, agencies and the state Legislature. Other entities involved include water districts, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and even the Coast Guard. Add to that the property owners around the lake, plus nearby homes and businesses, and it's clear that charting the lake's future won't be easy.

But it's not too early to begin the process of envisioning communities and corridors. Growth is going to happen, like it or not. The only question is whether it will be good growth or bad growth.

"We have the opportunity to get on top of this," says American Fork's Sumsion.

We agree. And guiding growth now is a far better course than trying to cope with the aftermath of haphazard development.