Heber City and other entities continue to work towards the creation of a bypass road. In the meantime, the city is asking for input from its citizens on how to improve Main Street.
As Heber makes plans to revitalize Main Street the city is administering its second survey. You can find the survey here. Heber Mayor Kelleen Potter tells residents where else they can find the 14-question survey.
“We have a QR code I just put it in our city newsletter, so every Heber City resident will get that in their water bill.” Mayor Potter continued, “So, they’ll have access to it there. We’ve shared it on our Facebook page, it’s on our city website and there are some flyers strategically posted around town. Hopefully they can get it from one of those places.”
Mayor Potter says the survey allows the city and its residents to plan the future of Main Street.
“We’re kind of looking at what is the future of our Main Street.” Mayor Potter explained, “Is it going to be primarily just a transportation corridor where a lot of cars and trucks are getting through? or is it time to hopefully move in a different direction where we can create some economic viability and vibrancy in our downtown. That seems to be the direction that people are wanting, they do want to reduce truck traffic. There’s a desire for more alternative transportation, safer walking, biking, just making it easier for people to get down there and get around. People are looking long term and right now there are a lot of detractors in the area, traffic and noise and there’s minimal attractors where people want to come down and spend time there. So those are the kind of things we are looking at. More vegetation, maybe trees possibly in the meridian. Some of this will depend on whether the parkway goes through. Fixing signage, some art, and just beautification efforts. Mostly what we’re seeing is desire for that the community wants to have a vibrant downtown where people will want to spend time where businesses will thrive where we can have city events and festivals. Things that really bring unity and identity to a community.”
Heber is continuing to work with other government entities to approve a bypass west of the city that would divert US 40 traffic and clear up Main Street. Until that’s done the city has to work with UDOT to establish speed limits and other rules on the road.
“Well since it is a state road we have to do what UDOT approves.” Mayor Potter said, “We have been told we can slow it down five-miles-an-hour but beyond that we can’t. So at least with the existing uses and the existing demand of traffic we couldn’t do much more. If this route comes into play and we can designate that as the state route U.S. 40 then Heber City would be able to determine the speeds and stop signs and lights and everything within that Main Street. Currently we work with UDOT on that and they have certain criteria that it has to meet before we can do certain things like putting in lights or changing speeds.”
Matt Parker, a UDOT program manager, says that UDOT is working with the city to find the best solution for Main Street.
“The thing is if the city decides to narrow or start to restrict or reduce the traffic flow on main street what they’re going to see is more people will start taking alternative routes.” Parker explained, “They’ll start going in one block over, two blocks over or whatever. So, there is a bit of a ripple effect. Traffic is like water, it’s going to go the path of least resistance and if they start damming up, per say, Main Street it’s just going to cause vehicles to go somewhere else. So, there might be some unintended consequences in doing that. Part of the study is to look at things that Heber City can do to help reduce the traffic on Main Street.”
