Heber City Council members attended Wasatch County Council’s Wednesday meeting to discuss the city’s Downtown Community Reinvestment Area initiative, a program designed to bring life back to Heber City’s Main Street in which city leaders are asking several taxing entities to invest.
The proposed project area stretches south around the airport and runs through the center of town through 500 North. It also contains a large portion of town about seven blocks west of the center of Main Street.
Heber City Councilors Mike Johnston and Aaron Cheatwood explained to the Wasatch County Council that the hope is to create the infrastructure, zoning regulations and environment needed for businesses to thrive, thereby incentivizing businesses to move to Heber City and consumers to frequent Main Street. This in turn would raise property values in the area, providing increased revenue through both property tax and sales tax.
“This is really important to us as Heber City,” Johnston said. “There’s significant things changing in this county that affect this downtown”
These, he said, include Utah’s Military Development Installation Authority’s project around the Jordanelle, the state’s upcoming 2034 Olympic Games and the Utah Department of Transportation’s continuous work on a Heber Valley Bypass to mitigate the currently heavy flow of traffic out of the center of the city.
An example Johnston gave of how improved infrastructure can bring in more businesses is the new Smith’s Marketplace building being constructed near the intersection of U.S. Route 40 and 800 North. Smith’s, he said, required the city to invest about $1.6 million on the intersection and road before they were willing to commit to occupying the new space.
Because the city spent that $1.6 million, he said, the plot’s improved tax rate will pay for the investment itself, and Smith’s will also bring sales tax.
“Heber City over the years has just stretched linearly north and south, and we need to focus on downtown the next 20 years or it will just become kind of forgotten,” he continued. “There are so many cities now in Utah that have implemented this successfully. Logan, Moab, Farmington, West Valley, West Jordan, Salt Lake, Orem, Provo, Park City. There’s a huge list.”
It’s an investment in the future for cities, counties and school districts, he said. Just as individuals invest when considering their financial future rather than simply working and hoping for raises, he said the CRA is a smart way for local taxing entities to help fund themselves decades down the road.
In order to fund the initiative, city officials are asking the county to contribute 75% of its tax increment within the project area over the next 20 years or until the county has contributed $3.2-$4, whichever comes first.
Johnston, Cheatwood and Heber City Manager Matt Brower all explained the contribution will be well worth the money given that the reinvestment will significantly heighten the tax increment the county will receive after the agreement has expired.
They also showed that $4 million of the project money would go to invest in an arts and recreation district, which they said is within the county’s long term plan.
The state also requires 10% of the funding goes towards affordable housing, which they said would be prioritized for school and city workers, a need they said every public body in the county desperately sees.
Heber City has already entered into the initiative, pledging 80% of its tax increment in the project area, which the city’s data said will come to be about $2 million. Cheatwood and Johnston both specified the city will also spend more on infrastructure and other expenses that aren’t directly tied to the project.
The Central Utah Water Conservancy District has also entered into a 75/25 agreement and is projected to provide $1 million.
The largest donor needed for the redevelopment project, the Wasatch County School District, would contribute a $16 million portion of the investment in a 75/25 agreement.
They have yet to agree with the city.
“We can’t do this without you. We can’t. We’re already doing it without you and it’s just not working because it’s just us and the water district,” Johnston said. “We do need you, and we do need the school district. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work.”
County Council Chair Spencer Park told the city representatives to bring the deal back after they’ve presented it to the school district so they could gauge their reaction.
“They kind of want the same thing,” Johnston chucked. “We’ll do it concurrently.”