© 2024 KPCW

KPCW
Spencer F. Eccles Broadcast Center
PO Box 1372 | 460 Swede Alley
Park City | UT | 84060
Office: (435) 649-9004 | Studio: (435) 655-8255

Music & Artist Inquiries: music@kpcw.org
News Tips & Press Releases: news@kpcw.org
Volunteer Opportunities
General Inquiries: info@kpcw.org
Listen Like a Local Park City & Heber City Summit & Wasatch counties, Utah
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Survey asks if Heber taxpayers would pay to stop airport upgrades

One of several display boards at the open house showed the details of the proposal to shift the Heber Valley Airport runway.
Heber Valley Airport Advisory Board
Heber Valley Airport planners have proposed to shift the runway and expand safety zones.

Heber residents have received calls asking if they'd rather allow an upgrade at the Heber Valley Airport or pay hundreds more each year in new property taxes.

Heber City residents have been receiving phone calls about their local airport. A survey asks if they’d be willing to pay higher taxes to give local government more control over it.

Heber resident Darryl Bosshardt received a call about the Heber Valley Airport this week, and he completed a 20-minute opinion survey.

Heber Valley Airport Manager Travis Biggs said he, Heber City Manager Matt Brower, City Councilman Mike Johnston, and a contracted analytics firm wrote the survey questions. The airport footed the roughly $22,000 bill to produce it and administer the survey to residents.

Johnston suggested conducting the survey after many residents shared opinions in the fall about what they believed should happen. Biggs said it has now ended after collecting hundreds of responses, and more precise numbers will be revealed in upcoming public meetings.

Community members told the city council they feared that by upgrading the airport, the city would invite more air traffic - and more noise, pollution, and risk of a plane crash with it.

For years, a study has looked at upgrading the local airport to comply with federal standards. The proposed changes are primarily to shift the runway southwest and widen the safety buffer zones.

The city is under contract for the next 20 years to comply with the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety standards. Right now, the city is not in compliance with FAA standards, based on the number and types of planes flying there.

In return, the FAA pays 90% of costs for major projects at the airport, like runway improvements, and the state of Utah contributes another 5%.

Biggs said the estimated cost to run the airport for the next 20 years is around $80 million, according to consultants and lawyers.

The FAA asked the city to make the master plan years ago, but COVID slowed down progress. The deadline to submit it is coming up in the summer of 2023, Biggs estimated, after which he said the airport would risk losing federal funding.

Some city officials have said that challenging the FAA is ill-advised and would could carry financial, legal and political risks.

Bosshardt said he’s been following the airport plans by attending public meetings. He said he found the recent phone survey to be oversimplified.

“I am pro airport. I fly out of the airport for work occasionally. So, I am not a, you know, fearmonger, ‘Hey, you know, the airport is going to ruin the valley, and we need to shut it down tomorrow.’ I do think it's a very complex issue, and I think the survey tried to paint one extreme.”

He said the surveyor asked if Bosshardt would rather pay hundreds more in taxes for 20 years or let the FAA make the proposed safety upgrades.

Surveyors identified themselves as employees of Clear Insights, a Lehi-based company. Bosshardt and other residents said the surveyors didn’t divulge who commissioned the study.

Some took to social media to say they felt the calls were trying to persuade them to accept the airport upgrades.

Bosshardt said he felt some questions were too black-and-white.

“I think more people need to be involved, and really understanding the complexities, to go down to the airport and visit with the airport manager, to look at the layout, and to really understand what the FAA can and can't do, and then look at other airport examples across the country. I do think many of the parties going in have this preconceived notion of what the best solution is, and because of that, there's many that I don't think are really looking for a good third alternative.”

Biggs said the phone survey is to gauge whether taxpayers would be willing to shoulder the full cost, rather than let the federal government cover 90% for capital improvement projects.

“Now they’ve got to put all the data together and figure out percentages and what answers, who said what and all that. There's a lot of city meetings, public meetings coming up, and this is going to serve as the [financials] in the survey and all that.”

Biggs said if the city decides not to make the upgrades, the FAA will stop sending money to run the airport. If the city took over the cost, that would run each property owner about $800 more per year for the next 20 years on a $400,000 property.

That tax hike would be smaller if Wasatch County landowners also contributed.

On Monday, January 9, the public can attend an open house about the latest developments of the airport master plan at Heber Valley Elementary School. There, planners will share the latest design and plan updates, and people can give feedback.

More on the master planning process is available at hebervalleyflightpath.com.