At a late-night meeting last month, councilmembers voted 3-2 to annex 95 acres north of downtown Heber, contingent upon finalizing the master development agreements.
The city council meeting Jan. 7 marked leaders’ latest attempt to reach a resolution on those agreements, but despite discussing details of the plans until 11 p.m., they haven’t yet taken a final vote.
The North Village annexation includes two proposed developments, Crossings and Harvest Village. They sit east and west of U.S. 40, respectively, at the highway’s intersection with River Road.
The Crossings property is 56 acres. It will include 60 hotel units, over 300 residential units, 5 retail units and at least 37 affordable housing units.
The Harvest Village development will be 39 acres. The density includes 34 hotel units, over 200 residential units, 48 commercial units and 33 affordable housing units.
On Tuesday night, councilmembers heard another round of public comment from locals, most of whom raised concerns about these developments in particular and growth in the Heber Valley in general.
Resident Joe Barney told the council he felt ignored when he spoke up against the North Village developments earlier this winter.
“I hope the three that voted for this insanity someday realize the damage they’ve done,” he said. “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize you cannot eat money.”
And Cassie Duke said she wanted local leaders to preserve the North Fields so her children could grow up with open space like she did.
“The North Fields and all the way up to the highway are what make Heber amazing,” she said, getting choked up. “It is what’s drawing national and global attention to where we live, and to see this come into the middle of that, it’s emotional. So, I just – I really hope you consider the future, my children’s future.”
Other residents brought up concerns about the development’s environmental impacts, including effects on groundwater and bedrock.
The Harvest Village developer, Neil Goldman, tried to address some of the community’s concerns. He argued the economic growth will benefit everyone.
“Last year, there was a tax shortfall,” he said. “Our hotel alone will generate approximately $4.5 million for this valley.”
He said the hotel will be a four-star resort.
Goldman said the valley needs development to fund programs that benefit the whole community, nodding to a resident who commented she could only stay in Heber because of the Self-Help Homes program. And he said his team is conscious of the importance of the North Fields to the valley.
“We only can create those [programs] when we have developers who are willing to come forward and put density like this in front of all of us, and then we are funding it,” he said. “We are spending millions of dollars on open land. We are committing, our project has over 50% open land on it.”
He said the Crossings development across U.S. 40 will be over 60% open space.
Councilmembers worked late into the night to iron out the details of the development agreements.
For Harvest Village, the revised agreement includes requiring the developers to notify neighboring property owners ahead of time when construction will involve blasting and restricting it to set hours.
The affordable housing agreement was subject to a lot of discussion. City attorney Jeremy Cook explained the draft gives the city final say in any proposed affordable developments.
“The way it’s drafted right now is, a third of it would be on-site,” he said. “Two-thirds of it, they could propose either on-site land or some other off-site project, but the city would have discretion to either say, ‘Yes, we like that,’ or ‘No, we just want you to pay the fee in lieu.’”
The fee in lieu requires the developer to pay an annual fee to Heber if it doesn’t build all the affordable units within Harvest Village itself. That enables the city to build affordable housing wherever it sees fit. For Harvest Village, that fee will be $60,000 per unit to start. It will go up based on the consumer price index.
The council also talked with developers about time restrictions for constructing all the components of the village, as Goldman explained.
“Before we can get a CO [certificate of occupancy] on the hotel, all 33 ERUs [equivalent residential units] of affordable have to be accounted for,” he said. “And then in addition, we would leave this other trigger that would also say, hey, you can’t overcommit and start building too much market-rate as well at the exact same time. You’re going to hold us to building commercial up front and getting that hotel open.”
The council also discussed the possibility of a bypass road using some of the Harvest Village property, how stormwater and groundwater will be managed, and more.
As the clock ticked toward 11 p.m., the council reached consensus on most of the terms of the development agreement with Harvest Village.
But for the Crossings development, councilmembers wanted to spend longer on details such as building heights, retaining walls and the design of a gas station.
The development agreements will be back on the city council agenda Jan. 21.
