Experts call them the "exurbs" - communities booming beyond the suburbs but still within the striking distance of commuters.
New U.S. Census Bureau numbers charting '90s growth in Utah's counties show continued or new growth in "exurban" areas. Growth in counties such as Summit, Morgan and Wasatch has outpaced growth in the core metro areas such as Salt Lake, Davis and Weber counties.Davis County, which topped many growth charts during the 1980s, and Salt Lake County both dipped below the state growth average of 16.1 percent between 1990 and 1996.
However, percentage-of-growth statistics may be misleading. Despite slower growth rates, Salt Lake County added more total population than any other county. The county added 101,862 residents during the past six years - or about 37 percent of the state's total six-year growth of 277,644 residents. Davis County added 27,049 residents. During the same period, fastest-growing Summit County added 8,470 residents.
In all, Utah was the fourth fastest-growing state - with just over 2 million people - behind neighboring Nevada, Arizona and Idaho. By far, the West - particularly the Intermountain area - has had the largest percentage gains in population in the 1990s.
While Utahns may be tempted to blame outsiders for all of the growth, 60 percent of the state's boom can be attributed to natural increase - the state's births minus deaths, according to Natalie Gochnour of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget.
The three fastest-growing counties in the country are in Colorado - all exurban counties south of Denver. The nation's other fastest-growing counties include two in Georgia and Teton County, Idaho, just over the stateline from Jackson Hole, Wyo.
In Utah, exurban Summit County has been the state's leader in growth for more than a decade and was the seventh fastest-growing county in the nation, the study says.
Summit County is hastily rewriting land-use codes in an attempt to handle the crush. Most of Summit County's population increase in the 1990s has occurred in the Snyderville Basin 20 minutes east of Salt Lake City, but development has occurred apace farther east as well.
The county in the past year has solidified its reputation as a growth-control pioneer through a pair of separate, strict plans for its geographically distinct east and west sides.
One favors rural culture. The other bans suburbs in the form of tract-housing sprawls.
In the county's more rural eastern side, a law adopted in the spring of 1996 downzones most property, forces development to stay in clusters near highway corridors and forces newcomers to sign a memorandum of understanding that they live among cattle and other farm lifeforms.
"All the warning signs were there," said county planning director Doug Dotson, noting the changes were designed largely to contain a residential-development boom from Kamas to Wanship, fed by spillover from the Snyderville Basin north of Park City. The area affected, however, includes every valley between Woodland and Henefer and the rugged land of the High Uintas along the southwest corner of Wyoming.
East-side planning commissioners earlier this year approved a somewhat controversial zoning ordinance that forces all future development to be grouped around open space.
"Village centers" are the centerpiece of the new subdivision rules, which call for dramatic clustering at the edge of meadows and the foot of mountains.
Unlike the growth declines experienced in Wasatch Front counties to the north, Utah County's growth was the fifth-strongest in Utah during the '90s. Following the exurban trend, next-door Juab County has joined the ranks of the state's 10 fastest-growing counties.
Growth in Mt. Pleasant, Gunnison and Fountain Green - still a fairly close drive from the Provo-Orem metro center - may have helped catapult Sanpete County into the fourth fastest-growing position, Gochnour said.
The exurban effect continues in Utah's Dixie, where growth from second-fastest growing Washington County spills north into Iron County. Iron County now ranks third in the state in growth.
Washington County also ranked as the ninth fastest-growing county in the United States.
Throughout Washington County, subdivisions full of pricey homes are springing up to house new residents in the city.
Retirees, California transplants and wealthy Wasatch Front residents who want a second home in Southern Utah are snatching up the properties, said Scott Hirschi, director of the Economic Development Council of Washington County.
The real-estate price tags have forced many locals to buy outside St. George. Ivins, St. George's western neighbor, is fast becoming a St. George suburb.
And from knoll to hillside, canyon to red cliffside, Hirschi estimates the county will fill up before too long. "Twenty years ago, when people talked that way it was hard to imagine," Hirschi said. "Now it's not so hard."
The average St. George home costs $150,625, which is greater than averages in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Provo. Rental prices are higher than anywhere in Utah.
The percentage of young people joining the Washington School District is growing faster than in any district in the state.
While some counties boom, others still find growth elusive. Emery, Carbon and Garfield counties had the most sluggish growth from 1990 to 1996.