Laren Gertsch inherited his first 5 acres of property in the Heber Valley during the 1980s after his parents passed away. Over time, he started acquiring more. Now, the 74 year old is one of the largest landowners in Wasatch County — owning nearly 300 acres in the North Fields.
Standing with Gertsch on his lush green, somewhat swampy land, it’s easy to see why he was drawn to collecting hundreds of acres in the grassy area north of Heber City. The North Fields are one area of the arid, high-desert Wasatch Back landscape that is classified as a wetland, allowing vegetation and livestock to thrive.
Gertsch stepped to avoid walking into the puddled water table during a tour of his land. He looked around at about one hundred black and brown cows, shaded by towering willow trees. Hands on his hips, satisfaction on his face.
He’s more familiar with his land in the North Fields than anywhere else.
Gertsch is a farmer through and through. He drove through it at 5 a.m. sharp every day when he worked full-time in the corporate world. Now, he has a bit of a daily lie-in and starts his duties about an hour later.
His commitment to planting roots, figuratively and literally, in the Heber Valley goes beyond him, dating back generations. But Gertsch has known for more than five years that his way of living is threatened.
Hundreds of acres across up to eight of Gertsch’s parcels may feature a highway running through them. That is, if the Utah Department of Transportation proceeds with one of two proposed alternatives for the Heber Valley corridor bypass route.
Both Alternative A and Alternative B are free-flow variations of a bypass route that would skirt around Heber City’s Main Street.
Alternative B is the choice Gertsch is most worried about. Instead of sticking to U.S. Highway 40 from Potter Lane to 900 North as proposed in Alternative A, Alternative B cuts through the North Fields — directly through Gertsch’s properties.
“If (UDOT) picked someone out to go through their properties, I’m it,” he said.
Gertsch drove on a somewhat dusty back road used by farmers and private landowners, pointing out what he uses each parcel of his land for. Some are used for irrigation. Some are for grazing. Some are for both.
He empathized with other North Fields landowners, saying the second alternative feels personal because it cuts through their properties.
“When you draw lines on a piece of paper, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gertsch said. “These are all small businesses.”
Gertsch said that, when creating the route alternatives, UDOT had not visited the area enough in person. But UDOT Region Three Project Manager Craig Hancock said the selection process was rigorous.
“We’re trying to minimize the impacts to wetlands, and that’s how it was selected,” Hancock said. “It was trying to find those areas where it would be the least harmful as we develop through there.”
But Gertsch remembers when he first heard about the bypass route. It was more than 50 years ago in a school social studies course. Since then, Gertsch said he has lost count of how many times proposed routes and alternatives have been approached. And, over the years, the number of possible routes has diminished.
In 2020, when UDOT began early scoping of today’s in-the-works Environmental Impact Statement, the purpose and need for the project were identified first. That’s when UDOT determined the bypass road should improve highway mobility and help Heber City reduce traffic on Main Street.
Then, UDOT began identifying alternative routes to combat the nearly 50,000 vehicles projected to travel through the area by 2050. That’s similar to Bangerter Highway now. Over the last five years, UDOT has tweaked its five initial designs. Two route options remain today.
The Environmental Impact Statement is set to be finished this fall. Once it’s completed, a route will be chosen and UDOT will initiate a 45-day public comment period. UDOT’s next update will happen at a Heber City Council meeting on Aug. 19.
A stalled decision
Hearing about the possibility of the routes years ago, North Fields landowner Nathan Wright said he felt paralyzed.
“This has dragged on for so long, people are afraid to make any kind of additional improvements to their property. Like, I’ve wanted to build a new barn since I’ve owned that property. There’s no way I’m going to put money into a new barn until I know whether this highway is going to go through there or avoid us,” Wright said. “I’ve noticed that story kind of repeats itself with every piece of property.”
The result is that property owners like Wright are letting upgrades, improvements and maintenance fall to the wayside.
Gertsch describes himself as a “well-oiled Swiss machine” who has perfectly functioning aquifers, wells, stables and irrigation systems. But Wright said other landowners and farmers in the North Fields have less motivation to do the same.
“You’re getting to the point where some of the property out there is starting to be run down because people are not able to put money back into their property, to continue to preserve it and improve it,” Wright said.
At a County Council meeting on Oct. 9, UDOT Executive Director Carlos Braceras said he remembers talking with the Region Three director in 1987 about the bypass route.
“We had fully designed plans to build a bypass around the north side of the city, ready to go. And then there was nothing,” Braceras said, adding that UDOT faced hurdles with community input for infringing on open space. “There was open land, and the community went nuts. (Clayton) didn’t want to lose the business on Main Street. And I get it, but we kind of lost an opportunity back then.”
Now, UDOT has narrowed the playing field to two alternatives: One — Alternative B — cuts through the North Fields. The other does not.
With Alternative A, the bypass sticks to U.S. 40 from Potter Lane, through Coyote Canyon Parkway and until it banks west at 900 North. According to Hancock, both Alternative A and B will involve widening U.S. 40. Alternative A widens the highway from 900 North to the River Road intersection. Alternative B widens the highway from Potter Lane to the same point.
Either way, landowners will be taking a hit. UDOT has acknowledged that landowners will be compensated after acquisition assessments, but right now, details and potential impacts are still being taken into account.
Landowners’ conservation efforts
About 20 years ago, Gertsch said he felt it was time to try to protect his property. That’s when he called up Wendy Fisher, executive director of Utah Open Lands, for coffee. In 2022, about 17 years later, the $5 million open space bond passed on Midway’s election ballot.
That’s when their idea became something they felt was achievable. With conservation easements, multiple avenues of funding need to be secured in order to move forward with a project. Most often, Fisher said Utah Open Lands will help gather funding through entities like Wasatch County or Midway — both of which have open space bond funding set aside.
With help from Fisher, Gertsch attempted to turn about 200 acres of his land into a conservation easement. More than 100 supporters turned out in droves to encourage Wasatch County Council’s dedication of $3 million toward the project in March 2024. The council voted 6-1 to award the money to the Gertsch property.
The same year, Fisher received word that the Gertsch conservation easement project’s request for $6.125 million in funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service was successful. With that funding, Fisher, Gertsch and Utah Open Lands would have the go-ahead to preserve Gertsch’s 200-plus acres.
For Gertsch and Fisher, it felt like a win. They had been working toward the conservation easement for two decades. It was, however, short-lived.
Skeptical of its leeway to provide reasonable bypass alternatives considered through an Environmental Impact Statement, the Utah Department of Transportation sent a letter to the Natural Resources Conservation Service on May 24, 2024.
“UDOT is concerned that if the [Gertsch] easement is recorded as proposed, UDOT would face significant challenges in the future in acquiring the portion of the easement needed from the NRCS and the landowner,” the 2024 letter signed by UDOT Region Three Director Rob Clayton reads. “This could jeopardize the construction of a western bypass around Heber City.”
Gertsch’s hopes for a conservation easement were smothered when he never received a final award or obligation letter.
“A lot of folks who are out there would also consider doing the same thing,” Wright said about Gertsch’s efforts to protect his property. While Wright also owns property in the North Fields, it’s only a fraction of the acreage compared to what Gertsch has acquired over the years.
For Wright, his 28 acres are for his own recreational use. He has a barn and plenty of grassy, open land. He said he tries to assist farmers in the area by leasing out his land for cattle grazing. It is, he said, a good deal for everyone.
Wright was most interested in lumping his 28 acres with a larger conservation easement in the North Fields, if possible. That way, he could more easily protect his property. With a conservation easement, there would be a binding legal agreement that permanently limits the use of preserved land in order to protect conservation values. That’s like what Park City has with the Swaner Preserve, which used a conservation easement to preserve 1,200 acres of open space.
“You know, nobody’s gonna establish a conservation easement for a 30-acre plot of property. But, combined with another 300-acre piece of property like Laren’s, it would be very, very easy for us to tack on,” Wright said. “But in shutting Laren down, they kind of shut us down also.”
Wright said when he bought his property, he was looking for a way to acquire open space where he could pursue his hobbies and have a quiet place for his family to recreate. About five years ago, he started hearing about a possible highway running through the corner of his land or, potentially, on top of his barn.
“Having a highway right out through the middle of the North Fields changes that completely. That piece of property will no longer be sort of the beautiful, quiet place where people like me want to have just open land,” Wright said.
Loss of income, history
Robert Hicken was born and raised in the North Fields. He still lives there now, with his wife and three kids. His six brothers and sisters roam in and out of farm duties — they’re used to it.
The Hicken family owns just 25 acres of land, but they’ve owned it for as long as they can remember. They still have the Homestead Land Grant signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
“It’s never been out of our family,” Hicken said. “Deep roots, you know, livestock, farming, agriculture. I mean, that’s as thick as it can be in our family name and our blood.”
When asked if any of his land would be affected by bypass Alternative B, Hicken answered simply: Half.
“Then, indirectly, all of it, because it would split everything right in half,” Hicken said.
As a farmer and livestock owner, Hicken said he and his family still garner a good amount of their income from their North Fields operations. They run about 100 head of cattle, which is critical to their spring and fall feed. The cattle go on the mountain to feed in June, which is when Hicken said they grow hay to feed the cattle in the wintertime. If his 25 acres were split, Hicken said all operations would cease because the land would be divided by a concrete highway.
“I wouldn’t have any feed for them in the winter. And so that’s critical,” Hicken said, adding that it would be an extreme economic hardship. “It would probably affect our cow and calf operation and our feed operations by plus or minus $100,000.”
Hicken said his corral and calving pens are probably some of the oldest that exist because they are maintained. His farming and livestock operations keep the family’s history alive and their coffers financially sound. But he knows that could change.
“I don’t think we could run it at all if the highway went through it,” Hicken said. “It would just destroy the opportunity.”
Commercial impacts
Dave Nelson is a landowner with large-scale commercial properties in and around Heber City. For Nelson, who owns properties on the north, south and east end of Heber City, all roads south lead to eminent domain.
“It really makes no difference, because they all go through the same point. One of the properties we own will actually be totally consumed by UDOT. I’ve already had meetings with them, and that is their plan for that property just south of the Holiday Inn Express,” Nelson said.
Nelson is referring to his land at the conjunction of Heber City’s Main Street and the proposed bypass alternatives. For both Alternative A and B, the bypass road cuts west at 900 North, loops south around Heber City and then directs traffic back east toward U.S. 40 while also offering the option to exit toward S.R. 189. Nelson’s commercial land sits at that crossroads.
“Right now, that’s vacant land. We had under contract for a couple of entities that we have subsequently had to terminate the contract because of the information from UDOT. So, currently, there’s no business there, but there was going to be,” Nelson said. “Probably five or six.”
Nelson thinks Alternative A would more dramatically affect his operations.
Because of the changes that would take place north of 900 North, Nelson said it could “dramatically economically impact” the businesses he had planned on stationing there. He said that includes upwards of 16 businesses, including up to eight different buildings, potential future hotel sites and smaller commercial operations.
The hit, he said, would not be to him but to Heber City and Wasatch County.
Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau explained that when a business makes a sale within city limits, 1% of that transaction goes directly to the general sales tax revenue. There are also county-wide sales taxes — such as the county-option general sales tax, the Tourism, Arts and Parks (TAP) Tax, the Transient Room Tax, and the Emergency Medical Services Sales Tax — that apply to all transactions, regardless of location. The larger the business, the larger the sales tax revenue it generates for both the city and county.
That means if Nelson can’t develop commercial property because of the bypass route, the city loses out on a potential boost to its local sales tax base, while the county misses out on county-wide taxes.
According to Heber City Finance Director Sara Nagel, total general sales tax for the city in fiscal year 2024 amounted to $6.6 million. That’s revenue generated city-wide. She noted that the amount a business collects in sales tax isn’t necessarily the amount the city receives because the state redistributes a portion of sales tax revenue based on a formula that factors in population.
Nelson assumes that upwards of 16 businesses taking a hit from the bypass would then impact revenue for the city and the county. Economically, Nelson said the cost of the bypass road might be more than its worth. But according to Hancock, the local economy is something UDOT considers in the research process.
“There is an economic section [of the Environmental Impact Statement] where we do look at the economics that are associated with the two alternatives. And so that’s, that’s something that we do look at,” Hancock said, adding that UDOT would come up with a plan to address any changes to the economy once a route has been finalized.
According to a 2025 UDOT study of both alternatives, Alternative A would have fewer impacts on waters and wetlands (22.3 acres impacted overall) with a $590.4 million cost. Alternative B, which cuts through the North Fields, would total $583.9 million and impact 51.2 acres of waters, including canals, ditches, streams and wetlands.
Will it work?
The purpose of the Heber Valley Corridor Project, as stated by UDOT, is to improve regional and local mobility on U.S. 40 from S.R. 32 to U.S. 189 “while allowing Heber City to meet their vision for the historic town center.”
Both the Heber City and Wasatch County councils have stated that one of the driving factors for the creation of the bypass road is to reduce traffic on Main Street. In October, Braceras said growth has made the situation untenable.
The United States Census Bureau reported Heber City’s population to be just under 5,000 residents in 1990. It was estimated last year that Heber City’s population had quadrupled, with just over 19,000 residents. And that’s not including the 18,000-plus others residing elsewhere in Wasatch County.
The big question is: Will a bypass solve Heber City’s Main Street traffic problem?
Braceras himself said probably not. He said 75% of traffic is caused by local congestion.
“People go line-of-sight. People will go the shortest distance from point A to point B, even if somebody tells them it’s quicker the other way,” Braceras said, adding later, “And so if you go out there and you count the traffic and say we’re only going to get 25% of that traffic off. Is it going to solve the problem? Because most of your traffic, over half of traffic, is internal.”
When the county articulated in 2024 that — if the bypass takes “two more years to figure out” — route options were likely to shrink rapidly, Braceras said UDOT will commit to doing more.
“I will commit that we will push harder than we’ve done before, that we will move farther than we have before,” Braceras said. “And we will communicate better than we’ve done.”
The point, however, may be moot.
Traffic studies presented to the County Council in December showed that travelers might only save up to seven minutes of driving time. Research also shows that expanding highways results in “induced travel,” which sees a return in congestion about five to 10 years after the highway is widened.
And, perhaps most importantly, there is no funding in the UDOT budget currently available to build the bypass road. According to Hancock, that’s because the Environmental Impact Statement needs to be completed before funding can be allocated.
“There are a lot of options, lots of sources. There’s state funding, federal funding, local funding,” Hancock said, though adding, “I don’t think there’s been any, as far as I know, there hasn’t been any real discussion about how that funding will happen.”
For North Fields landowners like Hicken, Wright and Gertsch, the biggest issue is not traffic — it’s how the land will change as a result of trying to reduce traffic.
Heber’s future annexation
It’s Gertsch’s and Wright’s concern that, if Alternative B is chosen, Heber City would then choose to annex into the North Fields and up to the new highway. Mayor Heidi Franco said it has been assumed that Heber City would annex up to wherever the highway lands if a bypass route is constructed.
“It’s been a gentleman’s agreement with the county for, you know, more than a decade, before I came along, that Heber City would annex to wherever that bypass road came through,” Franco said. “They would annex to the north and the west and to the bypass, the future bypass road.”
Franco said how much Heber City has the potential to annex depends on where the bypass road goes in the future.
For Wright, that’s to be expected. He said that he has already been approached by developers who would want to purchase his land. At first, Wright said it was a firm “no.” Now, he’s not so sure.
“I don’t know if I want to own a piece of property right on the edge of a four-lane highway, right?” Wright said. “Now I think it’s sort of a stand by and let’s see what happens with the highway … if they run a highway through my farmland, I don’t intend to continue to own it.”
When it comes down to it, Wright said he knows that UDOT will likely compensate him in one way or another. But, not harshly, Wright said it doesn’t matter so much to him.
“It’s almost irrelevant relative to, you know, this property going from this beautiful rural parcel to what’s going to be an ugly highway through the middle of the North Fields,” Wright said. “So it doesn’t really matter what they pay me for the little piece of property that the actual highway is on.”
For Hicken, whose family history lies in his 25 acres of land, he and his family feel the same.
“The real challenge is,” Hicken said. “How do we replace that?”