With Heber’s general plan updated, the city is now looking at the details of what implementation will look like.
Heber City Council and Heber City Planning Commission met in a joint special meeting Monday night to discuss implementation of the city’s new general plan. City Manager Matt Brower said that the final step of the Envision Heber 2050 is updating city code and ordinances
“So that we can bring about the vision, the tenant, and the principles that the council and the planning commission saw fit to include in the general plan update,” Brower explained. “The consultant right now is working feverishly on the North Village Overlay Zone that one is a great priority to us because of the number of annexation request that have been made of the city recently.”
While the city is working to add the North Village Overlay Zone as soon as possible the process of adding the other nine ordinances will probably take about a year.
Council, commission and staff discussed street width, prioritization of roundabouts and the importance of open space, parks and trails.
“One of the tenants that was made overwhelmingly clear is that the residents understood that we're going to grow, that we're going to continue to add homes,” Brower continued. “But they wanted to do so in a way where we didn’t look like a traditional Salt Lake subdivision. They wanted to develop in a way that was uniquely Heber. Try to preserve that uniquely rural Heber look and feel.
Other items discussed included dark sky compliance and fence standards. Council member Ryan Stack added his thoughts on code regarding signs.
“The reality is right now, the overwhelming majority of people who are driving somewhere and need to find something that they’ve never visited before, are not driving up and down the road looking for a sign,” Stack said. “They’re letting their phone tell them where to turn. So, signs are so much more about community aesthetics, than they are simply about yelling in all caps for visibility.”
Council member Heidi Franco added that previous minimum amenities from developments has made it so citizens have no reason to look forward to growth. With growth inevitable Franco hopes to make new developments more palatable.
“They’d rather keep the open space that we have,” Franco explained. “So, we need to provide meaningful open space, so they feel like at least they're getting something, right? Something that they can enjoy in a public way that would not have happened without that development.”
