Parked on a hill at Point of the Mountain, overlooking Interstate 15, Lehi Mayor Howard Johnson is trying to share his vision for the future of traffic in north Utah Valley.

"We get the best of both worlds if it is built up there," he said Thursday night as rain turned to snow driven by a howling wind.

"It" is the controversial Mountain View Corridor. Undaunted by political opposition and pressure from state planners, Lehi Mayor Howard Johnson is trying to win friends and influence people to see the future of transportation Lehi's way.

To that end, he has recently met with Saratoga Springs Mayor Tim Parker after drafting what Johnson called an "epistle" to Parker -- the latest volley in a war of words over where the Mountain View Corridor should be built. Johnson also is drafting a letter to the Utah Department of Transportation that should be sent within a week, he said, and has forwarded his letter pleading Lehi's case to Parker to all the mayors of north county cities, county commissioners and to the state transportation commission.

In mid-November, Parker sent a letter to his residents and thousands of people in Lehi, urging them to defy Lehi leaders and support UDOT's preferred route for the freeway and connecting roads, including 2100 North in Lehi. That letter prompted harsh words from Lehi leaders, who moved to kick Cedar Valley residents out of Lehi community programs, stirring ire on both sides of the issue.

Now Johnson has drafted his own letter to Parker in response.

"I hand-carried it to him myself," said Johnson. "My letter showed him how our solution better solves his problems than what the state wants to do. We had a nice hourlong chat about it and we did not walk away in agreement, but we walked away understanding... I'm not asking people to agree with me but to keep personality out of it while we discuss the needs."

When interviewed about their meeting, Parker said he and Johnson "have always been amicable, but each of our cities has a very different point of view on what should be done with the 2100 North connection."

While Johnson's letter did make Lehi's point of view clear "it has had no effect on our position," Parker said. "The core need is an uninterrupted crossing of northern Utah County, and the 4800 North bridge proposal is their way of making the connection with the Mountain View Corridor, but it does not meet the future need that I feel and our city feels will be necessary to handle traffic from the west."

At a recent UDOT public hearing on the proposed freeway, even some Lehi residents were divided on whether Lehi was defending its residents or slowing progress. Johnson said on Thursday that the public may not have time to make a detailed study of why the UDOT proposal is flawed and why Lehi's is better.

So why, in layman's terms, should UDOT abandon their plan and adopt Lehi'sfi

"Had that road been built as a freeway 15 or 20 years ago, it probably would not have mattered because we would have developed around it," Johnson said. "But now people have set up their lives and spent their fortunes, and to have that road come in and upset it when it is not the best solution is unacceptable."

The road, which Johnson says will be dug 25 feet into the ground in some areas, will disrupt underground water supplies, he said. Well users in the area could be cut off from their water supply. He said it was unclear how many people in the area use private wells.

UDOT is studying Lehi's proposal, though UDOT officials even at a recent public hearing were listing reasons why Lehi's plan is untenable because it crowds too much traffic into too small a space at Point of the Mountain and would require tricky engineering in potentially unstable soil.

Johnson said he is not discouraged -- in fact quite the contrary.

"If they are honest and straightforward and do their study as they should, there is no way under the sun they cannot come up with the result that 4800 North is a better solution for everyone," he said.

Lehi has also hedged its bets, he said. Rather than presenting its plans and concerns to UDOT, the city presented them "directly to the Federal Highway Administration, with UDOT present," he said, smiling. As the sole and final authority to decide where the road will be placed, "the Federal Highway Administration will make their decision and we have talked with them and we have their ear," Johnson said.

The project will also unnecessarily consume some of Lehi's valuable commercial property, and bring unwelcome pollution and noise to what is now a relatively quiet residential neighborhood, he said.

"It is not fair to people who have already built there," he said. "You would not want to be one of those people... We just don't look far enough into the future, and we end up doing things down the road that we simply find were wrong."

Johnson has said Lehi hopes to force UDOT to halt their plans for the freeway and consider Lehi's alternative instead. Few people understand that the 2100 North route preferred by UDOT would take more than 30 homes, but Lehi's alternative would take only two, and far fewer wetlands than any of UDOT's proposals, he said. Lehi's shorter route would also save commuters millions on gas every year.

The public has until Jan. 24 to comment on UDOT's proposal. Because $130 million has already been set aside for the Utah County portion, a usable road could be built on 2100 North, though not the full width of the freeway, by early in 2012.

For more information about the Mountain View Corridor proposal, or to comment, visit udot.utah.gov/mountainview.