I had the opportunity to listen to the presentation by our leadership here in Heber Valley. We live in such a great place with very committed leadership that want to do what is best for us as the citizens. We are very lucky!
Midway City
We first heard from Midway City Mayor Celeste Johnson. She talked about the Moratorium on Building that they have had for the last 6 months and wanted to make sure everyone knew that it is over. She wanted to emphasize that a moratorium does not reduce growth. It can pause things for a minute in order for the leadership to have time to make good decisions for the community. Mayor Johnson was very transparent and took ownership by saying “we didn’t do enough prior to now”.
She also discussed the term Conservation Easement and how they have done this one time in Midway City. Mayor Johnson thinks there are options to do more of this. Midway City itself used its own funds to purchase the conservation easement. Previously I have discussed and think it would be wise to continue this trend. Possibly more through the use of these Conservation Easements or as I previously called it Development rights as options to preserve green space while allowing the growth in developments. If we instead required developers (many of whom would be willing) to purchase these development rights from our local farmers in trade for additional or higher density housing in their own developments we may be able to preserve more green space. I would love to know what you think of this.
Heber City
Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco discussed what is happening in Heber City. She said that 10% affordable housing will be required for all new developments. Our population here in Heber City has increased by 7000 people in the last ten years. As many of us that live here noticed, the property taxes on homes increased by 16%. Additionally the sales tax requirements went up 18%.
A few new projects you can expect to see this year is the completion of the Daniel Road Connector. Also the Eastern Bypass Road through Red Ledges to Highway 40. The old town water main lines will also be starting to be replaced this year. Our current infrastructure is 70 years old!
In relation to growth, Heber City currently has 96 land use applications, 468 active building cites and they are conducting and average of 46 inspections per day! We have a very busy city!
Heber City is a great place to live and we are growing along with the rest of our state. We have over 1000 active businesses within Heber City alone. Shop local and support these industries.
Wasatch County
We also heard from the County leadership and something to celebrate…..County unemployment is down from 4.4% to 1.1% at the end of Last Year.
I also learned that the Jordanelle Basin Development is actually under MIDA. MIDA is the Military Infrastructure Development Authority and they make the decisions about the development there, not Wasatch County or Heber City. They do try to work together and have some input, but ultimately all of that growth is the responsibility of MIDA. MIDA also gets to keep a large portion of the taxes earned there. Which is (75%) until all of the infrastructure etc is paid back.
It’s great to see our leadership from Midway, Heber, and Wasatch County all working together to help make our community a better place to live and work!
If you want to learn more about options for meetings like this, visit www.gohebervalley.com
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