With buzzers in hand, about 170 people registered their thoughts about how Kern should prepare for future growth at a summit Thursday. Rather than watch summer reruns, attendees elected officials, business and nonprofit leaders, community staffers and the general public  weighed transportation, land use, energy and housing options.

The working estimate is by 2050, we will have 2.1 million people. How and where future residents will live, earn livings and travel are some of the scenarios the Kern Regional Blueprint Program addressed.

The Blueprint is a statewide project, and transportation and planning agency Kern Council of Governments spearheaded local discussions and outreach. The council will next present the Blueprint draft to its executive committee and the document will be combined with efforts from other San Joaquin Valley counties.

In previous meetings, community members told the council they valued Kern's quality of life  its small-town feel and resources.

Thursday, attendees suggested their ideas about how Kern should grow, including using canals to make "the Pacific Ocean work for us," one man said. He later proposed desalinization technologies could help with water supply woes.

Arthur Unger of the Sierra Club chapter would like to see every home have solar panels on its roof.

But one man said the Blueprint process was putting the cart before the horse because infrastructure wasn't being adequately addressed.

"Without infrastructure, you have nothing," he said.

How to pay for changes to our communities, such as more integrated mass transit and compact development, is a challenge.

Supervisor Don Maben suggested fees developers pay could be lessened if their projects incorporate desirable features such as parks.

Kern's growing pains aren't unique. A decade ago, Utah's leaders realized issues such as infrastructure and air quality needed solutions.

Robert Grow, chairman emeritus of Envision Utah, a public-private partnership for quality growth, encouraged participants Thursday to "build the region you want for you and the generations that follow."