The Wasatch County School District’s homebuilding program is running out of land.
High school students build one home a year through the program. It’s then sold at cost to a district employee. There are only two lots left, including one students are working on this year — but a solution is in the works.
Since November of 2025, teacher Canyon Prusso and Career and Technical Education Director Weston Broadbent have considered using almost nine acres of District-owned land near Timpanogos Middle School, east of downtown Heber.
Now, discussions are picking up. The district board of education gave Broadbent and Prusso permission Oct. 22 to start working with Wasatch County on more concrete plans.
The proposed neighborhood would eventually feature around 30 homes. Prusso told the board that means the program could continue for about 30 more years, depending on student demand.
“If we increase enrollment in the home building program, we will increase the rate at which we build, meaning we could get to a point where we're doing two homes per year,” he said.
Construction consultant Bonnie Witt Vance and her husband, design consultant Clayton Vance, are also working on the proposal. Bonnie Witt Vance’s brother, Joseph Witt, was previously instrumental in keeping the homebuilding program alive.
Witt was killed in an avalanche on Feb. 18, 2026. His sister says she wants to keep his legacy alive by helping the homebuilding students.
“Probably the last five or six conversations before he died I had with him was about this project. He was just so excited about it,” Bonnie Witt Vance said. “My husband and I decided that we were gonna just do what he would have done if he was here.”
Clayton Vance has designed the preliminary proposal, drawing from ideas Witt talked about, including prioritizing walkability and open space.
Bonnie Witt Vance said she’s seen how the program supports local kids — and how her brother inspired them.
“There were a couple boys that he worked with last year that they decided after the building program they actually wanted to go into architecture, and my husband has one of them as an intern now,” she said. “It just gives them an opportunity to see, okay, what aspects of building do I want to do and what am I good at.”
Homebuilding program leaders are now starting negotiations with the county to create a final plan. The land will also need to be rezoned before construction.
Prusso and Broadbent aim to have approval from the county and school board before August 2028.
