WEST VALLEY --- New roads, zoning, bike and walking paths and more are all heading to the West Valley. Wednesday night people took a look at what might be ahead for that part of Yakima County in the next 20 years.

Part of Sorenson Road may eventually become part of Occidental Road as one of the busiest roads in the West Valley. A pile of construction garb next to it may be replaced by high density residential lots. Those are just two of the many plans for West Valley. Maps cover just west of Selah, Yakima, and Union Gap and have been in the works for nearly 13 years. They lay out where to have trails, where roads need to be extended, and where business and housing developments may be allowed. Businesses are the centerpiece.

"We want to keep them at key intersections and those areas would be surrounded by higher density housing so you create more of a walk-able community," Yakima County Department of Public Services Long Range Planner, Phil Hoge explained.

When the planning started, it was enough for a developer to spark interest in Ola Vestad's land. "We had interest, and he said it was maybe a little bit premature because roads, water, sewer and so on were not closely available," he told Action News.

A majority of the people we talked to said they liked the plans so far, especially if it means having an easier way for emergency help to get to them. "It was a challenge to find some of the addresses because you didn't necessarily know how to get to it with dead end roads," Vestad said. He used to be a fire fighter.

But some say more roads are needed even farther to the west first. "I think that money could well be spent in other areas much more," Jim Klein exhaled. Some neighbors also wondered if eminent domain would split their property. But now that the maps are out, it's up to them to raise those concerns.

The planning commission will have a public hearing December 2nd at 7pm at the Harman Senior Center to field ideas before it makes recommendations to the city and county.