Plans for Jordanelle Ridge include 5,700 new homes and over 5,000 acres of open space in northern Heber City.
How to ensure the long-term protection of about 2,000 of those acres has been hotly debated by local leaders and conservation experts over the past several months.
City and county officials, along with the Jordanelle Ridge developer, discussed plans in October for an unconventional open space agreement. Under those plans, the two governments would have held the easement, the county would have enforced it and the development’s homeowners’ association would have maintained the land.
But after pushback from some, including Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco and open space experts from Summit Land Conservancy, leaders are reconsidering.
County manager Dustin Grabau said at a meeting Jan. 14 the land may be protected by a third-party land trust instead. He said leaders from all parties have been discussing ideas for Jordanelle Ridge behind the scenes.
“What we got last week was a potential path towards considering a third-party conservation easement on the property,” he said. “There [was] a list of items out there that I think, generally, the county is amenable to; there’s a few things that I think warrant some additional discussion.”
Grabau said the developer is open to the plan, although some of the specifics still need to be worked out, like who will maintain the public trails on the open space.
Deputy county attorney Jon Woodard said the developer was concerned about getting “mired in bureaucracy.”
“They’re concerned about having four entities hanging over them, with the city, the county, the HOA and the conservation easement holder,” he said. “So, they’re legitimately saying, if you want this control, we’re fine with that, but you’ve got to own it, and you’re going to bear all the costs of that.”
According to Heber City Council meeting materials, the developer has a list of conditions it wants to accompany a third-party easement.
Heber City and Jordanelle Ridge would have authority to approve any infrastructure without getting the county or land trust involved. Wasatch County and the Wasatch Open Lands Board would foot the bill for the easement, including the costs of ongoing stewardship.
Experts from Summit Land Conservancy say they have plenty of experience handling complex open space agreements.
Kate Sattelmeier is the vice president of conservation and counsel for the nonprofit. She told the county council that even as the plans continue to evolve, there shouldn’t be a barrier to working with a land trust: It just requires communication and flexibility.
“We don’t know where everything is going,” she said. “We don’t know where the detention ponds are; we don’t know the construction staging areas, the utility lines. It’s my opinion that a conservation easement could work around that. We’ve done some similar things.”
She said the agreement could include a section that would require notifying the land trust holder ahead of any infrastructure projects.
Both the Heber City and Wasatch County councils continue to discuss the terms of the proposed agreement. The Heber City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and Wasatch County leaders meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Heber City and Summit Land Conservancy are financial supporters of KPCW.
