The Sprawling Megapolitan Region of Utah

"As their counties and communities collide, tiny towns are becoming more of a distant memory where new needs for establishing an identity, transportation routes and areas for growth have become paramount for survival."

"'This is a whole different world we're living in,' said Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, who is studying the Wasatch Front as one of the Intermountain West's five emerging 'megapolitan' areas, where expanding commuting patterns make trends toward denser developments necessary and inevitable."

"The Wasatch Front, spanning from Logan to Provo, is ranked fourth in terms of size out of the five areas Lang is studying — Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas are bigger; Albuquerque is smaller — but it is comparatively ahead of the region when it comes to light rail and mass transportation, Lang says."

"Still, there are other areas where the Wasatch Front will need to adjust to keep up with its impending growth over the next 30 years, and not all of those changes are welcomed by long-term residents."