Heber City annexed the Jordanelle Ridge land in 2020, with the requirement that 5,130 acres remain open space.
Leaders are now discussing a conservation easement for 2,000 of those acres, a special form of legally protected open space.
Heber City and Wasatch County councilmembers and the Jordanelle Ridge developer have been working on an agreement whereby the two governments hold the easement, the county enforces it and the development’s homeowners’ association maintains the land. The Heber City Council voted to approve the agreement last month.
At the Wasatch County Council meeting Oct. 15, developer Mike Bradshaw said the more flexible agreement will enable more recreation opportunities like mountain biking.
“If we’d have done this easement under some conservation easements 40 years ago, there’s a good possibility we’d never be able to put mountain bike trails on that,” he said.
Any changes to the agreement would require the consent of all three parties.
County manager Dustin Grabau said although it’s unconventional, the agreement does constitute a conservation easement under Utah law. He said it offers the county “a seat at the table.”
However, leaders debated whether the unusual agreement will truly protect the open space forever.
Heidi Franco is the mayor of Heber City and the chair of the Wasatch Open Lands Board. On this issue, she sided with the open lands board rather than the city council, cautioning county leaders that the proposed agreement is weaker than a third-party conservation easement.
“Every verbal assurance was given that a land trust would hold all of this property at some point,” she said. “That was the basic understanding, right from the beginning.”
She said it would be safer for the easement to be independently held and enforced by an organization like Summit Land Conservancy. Taking that route would add more requirements, such as baseline documentation of the land’s condition.
Bradshaw said he’s frustrated people are voicing concerns now, after years of conversations.
“It just is shocking that here we are, ‘Oh, we got three or four more ideas,”’ he said. “I’m like, oh my goodness, where have these ideas been?”
He added the land is too steep for housing or other major development, so locals should feel confident it will stay open. The agreement forbids any “hard surface, building or structures.”
“I know everybody’s worried about a rec center or whatever being proposed to go up there, but somebody needs to go walk the property and they’ll find out,” he said. “Not a chance you’re going to be able to physically build it up there.”
Still, Cheryl Fox, the CEO of Summit Land Conservancy, told KPCW that even with the best intentions for open space, a third-party easement is the safest way to ensure land is protected “over the long haul.”
“There’s good reasons why well-meaning people might make a different decision at some point in the future,” she said.
An easement remains constant even as elected leaders come and go.
Fox said she doesn’t understand why local leaders are creating their own requirements, rather than enlisting open space professionals.
“It’s really hard to conserve land,” she said. “So when you have an opportunity to do it, why wouldn’t you use the best tool that you have?”
Summit Land Conservancy and Wasatch Open Lands Board members also raised concerns about acreage “missing” from the new agreement.
According to the Oct. 15 discussion, although Wasatch County’s original agreement called for over 2,700 acres of open space, when the land was surveyed, only about 2,200 acres were eligible to be included in the easement based on factors like water drainage.
Over 200 acres have already been dedicated to the county, leaving a little under 2,000 acres for Heber City to put under an easement.
As for the rest of the promised 5,000 acres in open space, Bradshaw said it will be distributed all over Jordanelle Ridge.
“We have an obligation to build three city parks in there, at least 10 acres in size,” he said. “There will be HOA parks. There’s a golf course up there that goes to another entity. All of those fall under the definition of open space.”
He said public buildings like churches and schools will count toward the total open space requirement, too.
The county council decided to wait until November and discuss possible revisions to the agreement before taking a vote.
In an email, Franco told KPCW she’s grateful negotiations will continue and optimistic a third-party easement could still happen.
“It is my belief that Jordanelle Ridge will keep their promises to allow a land trust to hold the easement along with the city and/or county, even when the actual land is dedicated to the HOA,” she said. “Jordanelle Ridge is a world-class development, and I hope they want the highest standards of open space protection.”
The Jordanelle Ridge open space agreement will be back on the county council agenda Nov. 19. Among the requirements the council will consider are baseline documentation and annual monitoring.
Heber City and Summit Land Conservancy are financial supporters of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
