A road project that is part of a regional transportation plan is raising many concerns in Highland and American Fork.

Some residents worry that a proposed extension of 9600 North from Lehi to Pleasant Grove hasn't been handled properly and is going to displace residents.

City and planning officials, meanwhile, are concerned that people are attacking a plan before they know all the details -- indeed, even before the plan has been approved and funded.

"Nobody along this road has ever received any notification," said Rozan Kitchen, an American Fork resident who's started a blog -- www.9600north.org -- to channel her criticisms of the project. "They've been real secretive and they haven't been answering questions."

The burst of public outcry was set off by a proposed amendment to Highland's general plan, which includes the 9600 North project as a recommendation.

The recommendations were prepared for Highland by Landmark Design, but the council is under no obligation to adopt them, said City Councilwoman Kathryn Schramm.

Furthermore, she said, the process was hardly secret.

Five neighborhood meetings on the amendment were advertised in newspapers, posted on the city's Web site and on fliers, and noted in the city's newsletter sent out with utility bills, she said. Over the 10-month process, the city also held two open houses and two public hearings, according to the city's Web site.

"They were very poorly attended," Schramm said of the meetings. "I really don't know what we could have done to inform people better. People had ample opportunity to give input, and they didn't respond very well.

"There's been a lot of innuendoes made. I'm concerned because I've received fliers ... and it seems to me that they don't have factual information available."

A public hearing on the 9600 North proposal is scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Legacy Elementary School. Since this hearing involves a specific area, letters have been sent to residents on that street, Schramm said. Because the general plan hearings involved the entire city, organizers stuck with more generalized notifications.

As mapped out now, the 9600 North project would provide a continuous two-lane road from 2100 North in Lehi east to Canyon Road in Pleasant Grove.

It's part of an overall regional transportation plan prepared by the Mountainland Association of Governments, which is made up of city and county leaders from Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties.

"Certain sections are already two-lane," said Shawn Seager of the MAG regional planning department. "Other places there are no roads. The idea is to create some connectivity."

The road is one of several east-west corridor projects being studied in northern Utah County, southern Salt Lake County and in Weber County, Seager said.

"We have really good north-south mobility in the three-county area, but we don't have good east-west movement," he said.

The 9600 North project has a budget of $38.3 million. Mountainlands' analysis lists the project as funded, but that is contingent on finding new revenues, Seager said -- either additional gas tax or auto-related sales tax money, for example, or the issuance of a bond.

According to the current regional transportation plan, building out 9600 North needs to be done by 2015.

Seager said there has been a fair amount of interest in the project, but that concerns usually dissipate when people learn that plans call for a two-lane road and that there's a wider study going on.

"They're initially alarmed that something is planned," he said. "It seems as though the energy is not as intense as they find out more information."

Schramm said she understands why people are not always as involved as they'd like to be.

"I understand how it is," she said. "If you've got a young family, or any family, you're trying to keep up with all this stuff."

She's heard similar complaints from people examining proposed street widening projects in the area.

"I understand where they're coming from," Schramm said. "Still, somehow or another, we've got to get traffic through this community."

9600 North meeting

7 p.m. Wednesday

Legacy Elementary School, 28 E. 1340 North, American Fork

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.