Wins and Loses: Over the past few weeks and days, a few interesting things have come up that I feel the Chamber membership should know.

First the win. Calling a UDOT update a win may be a little bit of a stretch, but nevertheless, the update is at least interesting. On November 13, UDOT presented to Wasatch County the current status of the environmental impact statement for the proposed bypass. 

Earlier this year, a series of factors led UDOT to essentially put the EIS study on hold. Those factors included conservation easement questions on properties in the proposed routes. UDOT determined that the traffic data they previously had was no longer viable. 

A few months ago the county, Heber, Midway, and others met with UDOT leadership to get a status update and urge them to continue working on the project. With that urging and call for frequent communication and updates, UDOT came on the 13th to give an update. In summary, UDOT presented that they have recalculated the traffic models based on new development data and presented a new timeline for the project. 

By spring of 2025, UDOT intends to have completed the alternate screening report that includes refining the routes based on the new data. Then, by the fall of 2025, the draft EIS will be completed for review, which then leads to the final route selection and environmental impact determination in the spring of 2026.

This is a win because we have moved from a project that was seemingly indefinitely delayed to a project with a clear timeline and plan. There is still a lot to be done regarding the bypass, but it’s definitely (ahem) “on the road again.”

Now, the loss (at least for now.) Heber City has been working for the past three years to establish a Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) in the core of Heber City. A CRA is a tax increment financing tool that can be used to encourage and attract private sector development. There is more to it, and I encourage you to read more about it on the Envision Heber 2050 website.

CRAs have been used around the state for decades and can be a great way for a community to spark and steer development to specific areas. In this case, Heber City’s downtown. To create a CRA, the city needs to reach critical agreements with the school district and Wasatch County to allow for future tax growth to be reinvested into the CRA area. Unfortunately, on November 20th,
Wasatch County voted three to three, with one abstaining. Therefore, the CRA did not pass. Once again, there is still more work to be done to iron out details and concerns for the county to make this thing work. It can come back up for a vote at another time.

In the meantime, I would encourage you as business owners to read up on the CRA and the projects Heber City is proposing for our downtown. Then reach out to our county officials to let them know your feelings on the idea and what it might mean to your local business. I am also happy to answer any questions about the program as well.

When it comes to community vision and progress, we’re going to run into these situations from time to time where we win some and we lose some. The key, in my mind, is to always stay positive and collaborative. It can be tempting to be negative and combative. But, let’s keep moving forward to build bridges and create relationships that improve our community and
help us reach our goals.