Leaders from Heber City and Wasatch County have been discussing the future of about 4,200 acres east of Red Ledges for months. The land includes about 3,500 acres owned by the Christensen family and 720 acres owned by the Utah Trust Lands Administration. The two properties will likely be developed in tandem.
Heber considered annexing the land, but after county leaders voiced objections, the two entities agreed to leave the land unincorporated and limit its development to low-density projects.
Wasatch County Council meeting materials for May 14 show developers have brainstormed options including upwards of 2,000 townhomes or hundreds of one-acre lots. Concepts shared with Heber in fall 2024 illustrated what would have been essentially a village.
For now, the trust lands administration says it will work with the county on development plans, but county manager Dustin Grabau said Wednesday, May 14, the agency has no obligation to do so if the county’s priorities don’t align with the state’s.
The agency was previously known as the State and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, so county leaders still refer to it as SITLA.
“SITLA, as a state entity, has the ability to preempt local land use authority, the extent of which is maybe to be determined,” he said. “But there at least is some precedent of their intent and their stated intent of potentially using that preemption in this case.”
He said agency staff met with Wasatch County and Heber City councilmembers at the state capitol recently and explained their primary goal is to monetize the land.
“They have a mandate to get benefit out of these properties to the benefit of these schools, and so they expressed the desire to develop this property to that end,” he said.
Councilmembers worried the state’s goal might be at odds with the county’s desire to only allow low-density development on the land.
“We did ask them to explore a very low-density option, and they expressed that it didn’t pencil for them – that there was not a financial incentive for them to pursue that route,” Grabau said.
That means affordable housing is also unlikely to be built.
Councilmember Spencer Park said even if the county arrives at a unit count it thinks the state will like, he’s worried the land might end up being annexed into Heber and zoned for higher density anyway.
He pointed to the North Village development, saying Wasatch County initially conceded density to developers in exchange for things like frontage roads and a transportation plan.
“Let me tell a story real quick, okay? I love stories,” he said. “We went ahead with developers and gave so much density that we didn’t even – we hoped that we were going to transfer density out of the North Fields and put [it] up there, but we gave them so much density there that we don’t love this. [We thought] they’re going to go ahead and build it – there’s no reason to go to Heber City.”
But then, Park said, the county had stricter infrastructure requirements than the city, and the developers sought annexation into Heber instead.
“We have shown in history that we can give them whatever number they want, and it still won’t be enough,” he said.
Still, county leaders say they’re looking for a “magic number” that will both enable the state to profit from the land and prevent it from turning to Heber for solutions.
“As a very general, perhaps, consensus, I think we’re at least at a point that it’s under 1,000 units for the total project – some number under 1,000,” Councilmember Erik Rowland said.
“Their magic number’s 894, they’ve shared with us,” Councilmember Kendall Crittenden said.
The council said it’s unlikely the state would agree to anything under 500 units.
How trust land is used varies around the state. Some property is developed, like land in Washington County that will become a hospital and planned community. Other parcels are available for mining or energy and mineral leases. The administration also regularly holds land auctions – in neighboring Summit County, about 460 acres near Echo Reservoir will be auctioned off in June.
