Lifelong Heber City resident Tony Kohler remembers the horrors of house-hunting with his wife in the early 2000s.
Many homes were ancient, with dilapidated furnaces or shoddy roofs that would require thousands of dollars of upkeep — on top of their $200,000 price tags, which were climbing month by month. On Kohler and his wife’s yearly salaries, he remembers thinking, “Are we ever going to get a house?”
Housing demand has continued to skyrocket, particularly in the growing Heber City. That’s why Kohler, now the city’s community development director, has dedicated the past five years of his career to developing the Central Heber Overlay Zone.
The zone stems from the city’s Envision Heber initiative. It was approved by the City Council on Sept. 2.
The zone is made up of two sub-districts in downtown, called the Central Neighborhoods District and Transition Corridors District. Both allow for infill, the development of underutilized land.
And there’s plenty of underutilized land downtown.
“We have 400 foot by 400 foot blocks. What you see in most cases is people use the first 100 feet of the block. … But what that means is there is a 200 foot by 200 foot square on each block that is underutilized,” Kohler explained.
Both the Central Neighborhoods District and Transition Corridors District allow for residential uses such as accessory dwelling units, duplex and twin homes, flag lots and mansion-style apartments.
“The zoning that we’ve had for decades now is not flexible enough to allow people to build garages or to help homeowners provide housing for their children,” Kohler explained. “The subordinate dwelling unit has a maximum size of 800 square feet, and it has the ability to have a really small footprint.”
Couple Zach and Marly Butterfield have been following the Central Heber Overlay Zone since discussions first began. Marly grew up in Heber and now works for Wasatch County, while her husband works as a salesman at Stone Insurance. They currently live in the basement of Marly’s parents’ home.
“It’s very hard. We both work full-time. No kids. And we make decent money, but, I mean, a starter home seems like it’s like $800,000 nowadays,” Zach said. “Honestly, most of (Marly’s) friends that she grew up with are moving out (of Heber) because they can’t afford it.”
The Butterfields purchased a vacant piece of land from Marly’s great-grandfather — described by Zach as “a weed patch” — around 2022 in the hopes that they’d be able to eventually build something on it.
It was a flag lot, and restrictions from previous city code forbade building on the land. For example, the driveway was required to be 20 feet wide. The Butterfields’ flag lot had a driveway of about 19.5 feet.
Now that the Central Heber Overlay Zone is in effect, the flag lot is buildable — in part because the driveway width requirement for flag lots changed to 16 feet.
“I felt like the council and Planning Commission handled the process well. They listened and made it easy to understand what the changes meant for families like ours,” Zach said. “For us, the (Central Heber Overlay Zone) just gives a bit more flexibility so we can stay in Heber and make things work as our family grows. It’s a practical step that helps people who already live here.”
Josh Lythgoe agreed. He and his wife grew up in Heber City and graduated from Wasatch High School. They now live in Orem with their three kids but have their sights set on moving back to their hometown.
Lythgoe’s father, Lane, is currently restoring a historic pioneer house a block east of Granny’s Drive-In. The building is over a century old, composed of solid masonry and has been a family project for generations. Lane is hoping to bring it up to modern living standards and retire in it.
Lane has an extra lot right next to the historic home. Josh and his family are planning on building a small cottage on the land.
Josh is a recent graduate from Utah Valley University’s traditional architecture program.
For Josh’s capstone project, he designed a theoretical affordable housing community just north of Wasatch High School. Now that Josh works as an architect with his father at Lythgoe Design Group, he’s created a sub-company, Penny Cottages, centered around affordable home designs.
Josh’s research shows that the median home price in Heber City is $704,430, according to Zillow. Some prospective homeowners may be better off building for as cheap as possible instead of buying an already existing home.
Josh has found that reducing the number of corners of a home lowers the cost of construction. A simple, rectangular design also allows for a simple gable roof, reducing costs and complications. Additionally, wood framing is the most affordable option because of the large labor market.
One of these designs, the “I House,” will serve as inspiration for Josh’s own future 600-square-foot cottage.
One modification Josh may make could be the addition of a basement apartment, creating housing not just for himself, but for his children and possibly renters, too.
Kohler believes implementing the Central Heber Overlay Zone decades ago may have had positive effects beyond just housing affordability.
“Had we had something like this, maybe we could have saved some of the historic homes that were bulldozed. Maybe we could have kept some longtime residents from having to move to a more affordable area. People like me, maybe I’d be living downtown rather than in a subdivision. Maybe there would have been less sprawl,” he said. “There’s a lot of what ifs.”
Those interested in learning more about the Central Heber Overlay Zone can visit envisionheber.com/choz. Kohler encourages residents with questions to reach out to 435-654-4380. The current version of the Central Heber Overlay Zone code is available online.