At a Wasatch County council meeting Wednesday, Heber City officials will appeal to the county for tax contributions to a long-term redevelopment effort.
Last month, Heber City Council approved a plan to use tax revenues from the downtown area to reinvest in future development there.
Now it needs to convince the county to join forces.
City officials say that a community reinvestment area, or CRA, would generate $36 million over 20 years as property values increased.
That money would fund infrastructure projects, including improvements to roads and sidewalks, parking, and water and sewer lines. In accordance with state law, at least 10% of the funds must go toward affordable housing.
Those projections assume contributions from the Wasatch County Council and School District, which have not committed to contributing yet. Wasatch County Council, which is projected to contribute $6.7 million, will take up the issue at a work meeting Wednesday afternoon.
At last week’s Heber City council meeting, City Manager Matt Brower told the council he’d heard that county council members had mixed opinions about whether the county should partner with Heber City CRA.
Heber City Mayor Kelleen Potter said there isn’t an exact blueprint for how the county would partner with the city in redeveloping Main Street. She said she hopes the county council will see it as an investment in growth for the county as a whole, including its future tax revenues.
“There’s all different kinds of agreements when people do these CRAs, and really it’s just a negotiation,” Potter said. “There are sort of typical arrangements where there’s an 80/20 split, where 80 goes to the CRA and 20 goes to the entity, but we have not negotiated the details yet, and so we’ll just have to see.”
She hoped Wednesday’s meeting will set a precedent that encourages the Wasatch School District to contribute future revenue as well. If the school district participates, it’s projected to contribute $26 million.
“What we’re hoping to accomplish with this are things that would not have happened anyway,” Potter said. “Someone can buy a property and put storage units there or do something that’s maybe a lower use for that property but easier for a developer, and we might say, ‘Well, we really care about the look of this area, and we’re willing to put in some money from the CRA to make it better.’”
The Wasatch County Council work meeting is on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
