The plans have drawn public attention for months as city leaders worked with developers to refine the terms of construction around the intersection of U.S. 40 and River Road.
Harvest Village is 39 acres southwest of the intersection. The density includes 34 hotel units, over 200 residential units, four retail units and 33 affordable housing units.
The Crossings property is 56 acres on the other side of U.S. 40. It will include 60 hotel units, over 300 residential units, five retail units and at least 37 units of affordable housing.
The plans took a major step forward in December 2024, when councilmembers narrowly voted to annex the land into Heber City.
And on Tuesday night, developers got the city’s stamp of approval on master development agreements for the properties. The vote was 4-1 in favor of the plans, with Councilmember Yvonne Barney dissenting.
Councilmember Aaron Cheatwood voted against the annexation last month. But on Tuesday, he said negotiations had been productive, and he voted in favor of the agreements.
“Luckily, the development agreement is significantly improved from where it was,” he said. “I think we need to learn as a council from this process, to know that when we start an annexation discussion with anybody, we have to be better at accepting no baseline and just starting with what we want.”
Some of the changes to the plans included negotiating the terms of the affordable housing requirements, the type of hotels to be built and a buffer for the Utah Department of Transportation’s eventual bypass road.
Councilmember Scott Phillips said the negotiations were a matter of “taking lemons and making lemonade” for the city. He said the density for the land had already been granted but making it part of Heber brought some benefits for the city.
“This is going to be an area that demands no city services,” he said. “There’s not going to be water infrastructure we have to replace in 30 years; there’s not road maintenance that we have to do. But it is a center of property tax revenue that we’ll receive.”
Water utilities will be provided by the Jordanelle and North Village special service districts. Roads will be private, so they won’t be the city’s responsibility to maintain.
Phillips also pointed to fees for open space and affordable housing the city will collect. For every unit constructed, there’s a charge of $2,500 to be put toward conserving the North Fields.
And if affordable housing isn’t built on site, the developers will need to pay Heber to construct that housing elsewhere -- $40,000 per unit in the Crossings development and $60,000 per unit in Harvest Village.
Not everyone agreed the plans should move forward.
Councilmember Yvonne Barney shared concerns about density.
“There are a lot of things here that we could have waited and we could have taken our time and done this in a better way that maybe created a little bit of ease for our community going forward, and that’s not something that we chose to do,” she said.
Mayor Heidi Franco also spoke against the developments, addressing the developers for both properties.
“I don’t get to vote on this, but I am not comfortable with this,” she said. “I’m more concerned about protecting everybody’s property rights instead of just yours – and that goes for both of you. I know you have your property rights, but I’m more concerned about everyone else’s.”
And she told councilmembers the development agreements would have long-term effects on the valley.
“We’re going to be dealing with the consequences for the rest of time in the valley from what you are deciding to do,” she said.
Councilmember Mike Johnston pointed out the density has been a given for over two decades – ever since the North Village Overlay Zone was created by the county. He said it was better for Heber to be able to control the development, using Summit County as a cautionary tale.
“Park City had a chance to annex Quinn’s Junction, and they didn’t, and it still developed,” he said. “Park City had a chance to annex Kimball Junction. They declined; it still happened. The zoning is already in place. We have no intention, as this council, of annexing into the North Fields and anything that’s currently zoned agriculture.”
Both developments include over 50% open space.
Neil Goldman, a developer for Harvest Village, said the current plans replaced a proposal for a water park with little open space and no affordable housing.
“We looked at it and said, ‘That doesn’t feel right for what we need here,’” he said. “We need open space, we need affordable housing, we need recreation. And I think if we are given the opportunity to have discussion with people who weren’t happy that this project moved forward, they don’t have to agree with us, but I think they can at least understand what is going through our hearts and our minds as we try to develop a place of purpose and meaning.”
He said he wants community members to know their feedback was heard.
“I hope that they realize that their voices helped to improve the development agreement for them and other members of the community,” he said.
Goldman says the next step toward construction is finalizing architectural and engineering plans and filing them with the city. Work on the land could begin as soon as this spring.