Wasatch County leaders say they’ve outgrown the current administration building at 25 North Main Street in Heber. The county has squeezed employees into closets and meeting rooms to make do, and it’s delayed hiring new staff because it has nowhere to put them.
A new facility is planned to give county employees more space and put more departments under one roof. County management analyst Richard Breitenbeker said that’s an effort to streamline services for residents.
“Everything that’s in our current administration building, as well as our planning, engineering and building departments that are currently not in that building; Heber Valley Tourism and Economic Development will be a guest in that building; the driver’s license division, which is a state-run office that’s currently east of here, will also be in that building,” he said.
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, he told the Heber City Planning Commission the county wants to annex the site of the future building into Heber. It’s planned for construction at the corner of state Route 113 and Southfield Road, near the baseball diamonds at Southfield Park.
State law requires all elected county officials to have offices at the county seat, which in Wasatch County is Heber City. That would appear to leave little room for the city to object to annexation.
Still, Heber planning commissioner Dennis Gunn asked Breitenbeker why the city should support annexation, since the county declined to agree to a tax increment funding plan to revitalize downtown.
“If the city were to consider this annexation, does the county have any interest in supporting some of the things that we're trying to do with the downtown?” he said. “It seems like it's kind of been opposed to some of those things.”
Breitenbeker said if the county relocates, more space on a key downtown block in Heber will open up for redevelopment.
The planning commission recommended the city council approve the application, with the condition that the city and county look for a way for Heber to purchase the property on Main Street where the current county building sits.
Breitenbeker said the design process is underway for the new government offices. Once they are finished, construction will take around two years.
The project’s cost is estimated at $43 million.
The next step in the annexation process is for the Heber City Council to discuss the plans. Breitenbeker said that conversation will likely happen in early February.