The Heber City Council passed the Central Heber Overlay Zone last week, a new set of development standards for downtown meant to incentivize small amounts of residential growth. It’s one of numerous projects under the Envision Central Heber umbrella, the city’s overarching goal to create a more vibrant, walkable and small business-friendly downtown.
Before the council adopted the zone Sept. 2, one main discussion topic was whether property owners should be required to add or improve infrastructure like curbs, gutters and sidewalks.
The council opted not to create that requirement which sparked some debate about the future of pedestrian-friendly development in the city.
Few downtown Heber streets have sidewalks and finished curbs. Instead, most simply have a dirt shoulder. And as city manager Matt Brower explained, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
“Installing curb, gutter, sidewalk and the stormwater system is incredibly expensive, and the public told us during the general plan update they didn’t want it,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Sept. 10. “They want to try to maintain that rural look and feel.”
He noted it’s also difficult and expensive to update the stormwater system wherever sidewalks and gutters are installed.
Councilmember Mike Johnston said at the Sept. 2 meeting he was against requiring sidewalks in the Central Heber Overlay Zone. He worried the cost might encourage developers to only propose “highest density” projects downtown, rather than adding a couple of units here and there.
“No one will do a flag lot, no one will do a small lot, no one will do a subordinate dwelling unit,” he said.
Those are ways of breaking up a large lot into smaller pieces, one of the original goals of the overlay zone.
Councilmember Scott Phillips, meanwhile, said if curbs and sidewalks were left to property owners, the result would be piecemeal and poorly done; only a larger city project could provide consistent quality.
“Seriously, if we want to put curb and gutter in Old Town, that needs to be a financial decision of the city to take that on and do it,” he said.
The council also debated where sidewalks are truly needed, with some saying it would help pedestrian safety and others arguing people don’t actually walk around Heber – or, if they do, the streets are wide enough that they’ll choose the road instead of the sidewalk.
Brower said, for now, the city will instead focus on constructing multi-use trails, with room for bikes, e-bikes and pedestrians.
Heber City adopted a trails master plan in 2021. The plan calls for Heber to exponentially increase its supply of paved trails from four miles to 81, including miles of multi-use trails downtown.
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