Heber City launched an economic stimulus project back in 2021 it hopes will transform the downtown area over a 20-year period. It taps into property taxes as the city grows and property values in the downtown area increase.
Heber City Manager Matt Brower pitched the idea to the Wasatch County school board Tuesday.
“People will come for maybe a tank of gas, a bag of ice, maybe hamburger,” Brower said, “before they continue the drive through, on to someplace else whether it's Strawberry Reservoir or the mountains, what have you. What we hope to do is to essentially change the drive-thru to a destination — our Heber downtown becomes a destination.”
He said population growth and a spike in retail sales over the past decade put the city in prime position to capitalize on that momentum. It’s called a community reinvestment area, or CRA, and is designed to accelerate development by pooling a percentage of city, county and school district tax revenues.
The CRA fund will hold that money for downtown projects such as a pedestrian-friendly Main Street, parking deck and other goals in the recent Envision Central Heber general plan the city created. The Smith’s Marketplace that broke ground in spring 2023 was the first major project within the CRA endeavor.
In the near future, Brower said a highway bypass and the potential Olympics will bring a rare influx of visitors, and the city should set itself up to collect taxes from them.
He also referenced the Deer Valley resort expansion next year, which will bring skiers into Wasatch County’s first ever resort village and is projected to generate $400 million in annual tourism spending in local areas.
“Probably Park City, and why not downtown here?” Brower said. “Why not get in downtown Heber and spend a portion of that $400 million, strengthen our community and our business base?”
Since the Wasatch County School District is by far the largest tax collector, Heber City wants the school board to share that vision and share property tax funds for the CRA fund.
Tuesday wasn’t the first time Brower and the city have sought the school district’s help. Back when the Heber City Council approved the move, school officials said they were focusing on the potential of a new high school, which it decided to build in the summer of 2022.
School board members asked how the CRA could impact current Main Street businesses and homeowners, as well as in targeted areas for development such as on the west side.
Superintendent Paul Sweat said as the board and district officials consider the pros and cons of sharing tax revenues for a greater good, they’d like to have influence over the area it covers and how the money is spent.
“I think we will be talking with the city in the future about some things we'd like to see, maybe, that could take place around the school,” Sweat said. “We would like to think that we can have some influence on what the neighborhood looks like around our school. We’ve got some ideas.”
Board members didn’t establish a timeline to make a decision but said they would resume the consideration of the CRA after formally putting it on pause.
The discussion followed a county council meeting last July, when Brower asked elected officials to share county tax revenues, a smaller but significant share of property taxes county residents pay.
The county council said they would likely base their decision on whether the school district decides to participate.
Part of the city’s pitch is that the agreement will not create any new tax or take money from the revenues taxing entities already collect. It would take about three-quarters of the increases in property tax values over time.
