The “Sunset Ridge Amphitheater” is an outdoor performance space planned for a future 40-acre arts district near the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus.
Phil Jordan is the chair of the Heber City Planning Commission and the president of the Heber Valley Arts Center, the group dreaming up the arts district. He told the city council at its meeting Aug. 19 he was acting as a private consultant focused on “venue development.”
Jordan said he wants the amphitheater to attract audiences from not just the Heber Valley but also Park City, Provo and Salt Lake City.
“Particularly, we see the opportunity for the 2034 Olympic Games – to have a cultural Olympiad for our valley,” he said. “We see that as a predominant opportunity for us.”
Right now, he’s considering ways a big amphitheater can “feel small” so that up-and-coming local artists will “not feel unsuccessful.”
“An analogy I use is, say you go to Abravanel Hall, which is at 2,900 seats,” he said. “If you go into, say, the Rose Wagner at 500 seats, and you’re 450 people, you’re a sold-out show. You take 450 people and go into Abravanel Hall, and you’re going to feel like you’re really hurting.”
He said the arts district will someday include visual arts, theater and community education.
Besides venue design, the council also talked about financing the project.
Heber City Manager Matt Brower said public infrastructure district (PID) funding will pay for the amphitheater.
“PID funding is about $11 million available for this project, looking at a venue of potentially about 5,000 seats,” Brower said.
A PID is a funding mechanism developers use to build infrastructure like roads and utilities. The developer pays for the improvements with bonds, which are then repaid through special assessments or property taxes. That means property owners within the boundaries of the district could be charged extra to cover the cost of the bonds, as Councilmember Scott Phillips explained.
“It’s not a city tax; it’s not something the city residents pay for,” he said. “The PID is paid for by the development itself, by those purchasing the homes.”
Utah lawmakers authorized the use of PIDs relatively recently, in 2019. They’re financially attractive for local governments, since the debt only applies to properties within the infrastructure district. They are independent of the city, however, meaning leaders have limited oversight once PIDs are created.
There are five PIDs within the Jordanelle Ridge development east of U.S. 40 and north of downtown Heber, with a total planned debt limit of $250 million. Besides improvements like roads and sewer systems, Jordanelle Ridge is also using PID financing to pay for an ice ribbon, club houses, sports facilities and trails.
A 2022 Jordanelle Ridge PID agreement says some $15.6 million will go toward the arts district.
A committee will discuss the arts district plans in depth this fall, and Jordan said he will return to the city council with an estimated price tag for the project in January 2026.
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