Growth in Utah County means increased demand for roads, and a proposed new fee on vehicle registrations would help ensure that there are places for new roads to be built.

Utah County commissioners on Tuesday will discuss adding as much as $10 to the cost of vehicle registrations, with the money pooling in a fund to pay for road rights of way.

"I think there's some recognition that we do have a need for preserving right of way," said Commissioner Larry Ellertson. "I'm not for more taxes, but I am for doing the right thing.

"Transportation is a long-term investment and something we all benefit from. Whether or not everyone views it that way remains to be seen."

If the new fee is approved by April 1, it can be implemented starting in July.

Area mayors have also discussed the idea.

"It's such a necessary thing for us to look into the future and preserve our corridors," said Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn, who chairs the Mountainland Metropolitan Planning Organization's regional planning committee.

"The cost of raw land right now is much less than what it will be in years to come," Washburn said -- and in years to come, "it also might not be raw land."

"We really have a crucial need," he said. "We cannot accommodate the growth that's anticipated in Utah County ... on the existing infrastructure."

Legislation passed in 2005 allows counties to collect the fee and dedicate it to road corridor preservation.

Salt Lake County and Davis County are considering implementing the fee as well, said state Department of Transportation spokesman Nile Easton.

If the fee is set at the maximum $10 it would generate about $2.6 million a year for Utah County, based on 2004 figures showing just over 261,000 vehicles registered here.

That's not much money when it comes to buying right of way, said Washburn.

For example, more than half of the cost of work on 800 North in Orem -- $20 million to $25 million of a $40 million project -- was used for right of way costs, he said.

"If we have those rights of way purchased and established ... we can devote much more of the money to construction than if we wait," he said.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D3.