As construction shapes Deer Valley East Village, another piece of the long-term vision will soon welcome its first guests.

Canopy by Hilton Deer Valley, the first Utah location for Hilton’s Canopy brand, is scheduled to open this summer. It will be the third hotel to debut in Deer Valley East Village following the opening of the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and Pioche Village. 

With the opening expected at the end of July, the property will serve locals as well as visitors, said Kat Barrett, vice president of commercial services at Extell. 

Located at the base of Deer Crest with the Jordanelle Express Gondola steps away, the four-story 180-room hotel includes four dining venues, an indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, cold plunge and fitness center, a game room, meeting spaces and skier services.

Extell Development Company owns the Canopy Deer Valley as well as the neighboring Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and is also developing the Four Seasons and Waldorf Astoria hotels at the new base area.

It will also be the second property managed by Extell’s own recently created hotel management arm, Barrett said, with a few other properties in the pipeline.

“(Canopy) hits this upper upscale positioning in this market, which I think is a huge opportunity, because there’s not a lot of upper upscale inventory,” said Barrett. “It’s luxury or maybe it’s mid-scale product, so it’s going to open up doors for people who wanted to travel here.”

The hotel is also significant for the 12-year-old Canopy by Hilton brand itself as the first property to come online with its new face, including a logo and updated color palette.

Of the 180 guest rooms, 96 are king rooms, 74 are queen-queen rooms and 10 are suites. A king room with a small balcony is expected to start around $300 per night during the offseason before increasing to $800 during peak ski season.

While Canopy is positioned within Hilton’s upper-upscale portfolio, Barrett said the brand is similar to boutique-style hotels by creating a sense of place.

“As part of the Canopy branding, it’s local, it’s a sense of home,” she said. “Every Canopy hotel has a bed canopy, and the inspiration behind that is we’re bringing you under the canopy, so we’re showing you things local, we’re showing you our home.”

Not only does that come through in the design elements, but also in the retail items that will be available for purchase and the dining concepts. 

Artwork and furnishings reference skiing and Utah’s mountain landscape. Rugs resemble aerial views of ski trails, while whimsical collage-style artwork includes images such as a hand mixer whipping up a snowstorm and an oversized tea bag steeped in a mountain lake.

“A lot of the colors that you’ll see here are reminiscent of ’60s, ’70s ski culture,” Barrett said. “Everything has texture to it, color, a different finish, so if you’re here four or five nights, you could technically be sitting in a different seat and having a little bit of a different experience.”

For the namesake bed canopies, a large weave of colorful straps extends up and over the bed, reminiscent of backpack straps, Barrett said. Historical influences also appear throughout the restaurants, like a decorative rope installation in the three-meal restaurant that pays tribute to the area’s ranching and mining history.

The hotel’s culinary program will be led by Executive Chef Scott Rackliff, whose resume includes hospitality brands like Pacific Hospitality Group’s Meritage Collection and Michelin-starred restaurants such as Eleven Madison Park in New York City. Rackliff recently moved to Park City from Huntington Beach, California, after growing up in New Hampshire.

“It feels like coming home, coming back to nature, and in the mountains,” Rackliff said.

The property will feature four separate food-and-beverage concepts designed to serve hotel guests and local residents.

A grab-and-go café in the lobby will offer coffee, pastries and sandwiches during the day before transitioning to desserts and sweets in the evening.

The main restaurant is an Italian brasserie featuring an outdoor pizza oven, Italian cuisine and flatbreads. The concept was developed with consulting chef Daniele Uditi, founder of the Los Angeles restaurant Pizzana.

On the other side of the lobby’s two-way fireplace, a lounge provides another casual gathering space, while the fourth-floor restaurant will focus on elevated American comfort food paired with mountain views.

“It’s rustic American comfort food, but with lots of inspiration from what we have here,” Rackliff said of the upstairs restaurant designed with a-frame ceilings and a large vintage fireplace. “So there’s bison on the menu, we’ll play with some elk probably on specials and stuff like that, and then game meat.”

Among his favorites planned is a duck confit sandwich, with a traditional duck leg confit pressed and grilled until the skin becomes crisp, served with arugula, sweet and pickled cherries, fennel seed and mustard seeds on a pretzel bun. There will also be classics like a Salisbury steak made from Wagyu beef, potatoes, charred carrots and a mushroom demi-glace.

“One of my favorite things is comfort food, just try and give it that Michelin-star twist,” Rackliff said. “To me Michelin isn’t about actually getting the damn star. I don’t really care. But if you embody those criteria into what you’re doing, you’re going to have a great restaurant.”

That approach also includes sourcing ingredients locally whenever possible.

Rackliff said the kitchen has some budding partnerships with local purveyors like PaMaw’s Organic Farm in Daniel for produce and Heber Valley Artisan Cheese for regional cheeses. The plan will be for all four dining outlets to open with the hotel, and increase hours as the busy season arrives.

As the team puts the final touches on the property, Barrett said the excitement is growing.

“It’s so rare, at least in hospitality, that people get to be part of an opening,” she said. To commemorate that, each staff member involved is gifted a Canopy-branded hard hat.

Reservations are now open for stays starting Aug. 16. For more information, visit hilton.com/en/hotels/slcvepy-canopy-deer-valley.

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Wasatch County Council Chair Erik Rowland has officially joined the Military Installation Development Authority board. 

Rowland’s appointment to the board comes after Karl McMillan, who held both positions, resigned from the County Council in April, citing serious health problems. The MIDA board reserves one seat for a Wasatch County councilor, which Rowland accepted as chair of the County Council.

“Unfortunately it’s not the best situation to have that appointment,” Rowland said. “He’s not doing so well, so our thoughts are with him right now.”

Rowland attended his first MIDA board meeting on Friday morning. He said he is just getting started with MIDA operations and working as a liaison between the County Council and the MIDA board. The county councilor said, as chair, he was interested in the appointment because he wants to better understand MIDA’s processes and “the cadence of how things work.”

“I thought it would be appropriate to be able to have that direct connection with the MIDA board because it is the largest project happening right now,” Rowland said.

He’s referring to the Deer Valley East Village project and development by MIDA. In nearly 10 years, MIDA will be nearly finished with the 6,200 units currently planned for development, which was 22% complete in May 2025. 

Homes, townhomes, hotels and condos will be spread across six zones in the Jordanelle Basin. Numbers stand at 196 homes, 861 townhomes or condos, 230 hotel room units and 143 hotel condos, which are privately owned but attached to a hotel. The build-out date is sure to be after 2035. 

By then there will be 1,267 homes, 3,240 townhomes or condos, 1,358 hotel room units and 314 hotel condos. Nearly 95% of development will occur sometime between the 2034 Winter Olympic Games and the county’s 175th anniversary in 2037.

“It’s important that I think everyone understands just how much influence that has. It’s currently redefined the future of the county,” Rowland said. “We’ve gone from kind of a quiet mountain town to a resort town.”

With Deer Valley Resort now just up the road from the Heber Valley, Rowland said there’s also pressure to increase the county’s workforce and to increase affordable housing. There’s also pressure on traffic needs and infrastructure, he said.

Rowland said, even in his first MIDA board meeting on Friday, there is a good deal that he wants to weigh in on and share with MIDA board members. 

“There’s a lot of moving pieces that cause the board to be very influential in how it shapes our county,” Rowland said. “(To) be able to have a voice to advocate for the county … that was important to me.”

If the board is promoting itself as a “public good,” Rowland said, then there needs to be “more effort to really advertise that.”

“So that people understand, what does that mean,” Rowland said. 

Next steps for Rowland include sitting down with board members to better understand their role and how operations work within the board. 

Meanwhile, MIDA did not discuss the controversial multibillion-dollar data center project backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary that would be located in Box Elder County.

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Developer Vincent Criscione says he believes in both sustainability and affordable housing. His proposed project has both.

Criscione, the owner of Crisco Development LLC, wants to build a mix of affordable and market-rate housing units at 2400 W. Rasmussen Road. The development — which would have commercial space, including a daycare — would be sustainably built and operated and all electric under his plan.

In a presentation to the Summit County Housing Authority on June 15, Criscione described the 23-acre site as beautiful and pristine, with a Basin Recreation trailhead and trail along the creek and a view of the mountains.

“It’s such a great location for any housing to have that be your backdrop,” he said.

Criscione, who developed Lincoln Station Apartments at 670 Bitner Road in Park City, asked the board for feedback on his proposal. He is seeking a letter of support for the project before going to the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission with a rezoning request and then eventually to the Summit County Council.

Board members said they want more details about the project before making a decision on a recommendation.

The proposal calls for 108 affordable and market-rate apartments for rent on 6 acres on the east side of the property. The nine studios, 45 one-bedroom units and 54 two-bedroom units would be in three buildings. A clubhouse, a gym, 293 parking stalls and the 10,000-square-foot Mountain Sprouts Children’s Center would be on this part of the site.

The number of apartments that would be affordable has not been determined yet.

A 5-acre parcel on the west side of the project site would have 60 condominiums in five buildings and 124 parking stalls. The two-bedroom units would be available for sale for approximately $400,000 to buyers who make no more than 80% of Summit County’s average median income.  

The east side amenities would support the west side, which would be developed first.

The development site is on the north side of I-80 between Summit Self Storage and RV Resort above East Canyon Creek. Kimball Junction with all of its services — a grocery, gas station, post office, shopping restaurants and a transit center, among others — is 1 mile away. An I-80 overpass is a half mile away and Whole Foods and Walmart are a six-minute bike ride away.

Residents would be close to everything they need, which makes the location a good place for higher density affordable housing and reduces driving and greenhouse gases, Criscione said.

Criscione, who has lived in the Park City area for 30 years, is working with three affordable housing programs to help with the project, including one that provides assistance with down payments. He likely needs to begin construction of the development next spring because one of the programs sunsets in a few years, he said.

“I have to get things through in a very expeditious manner,” Criscione said.

There have been at least two previous plans to build a mixed-use project at the site but they did not come to fruition.

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Developers of The Highlands asked the Heber City Council on June 16 for the authority to impose a special property tax on homeowners, requiring them to cover more than half of the $40 million tab to install public infrastructure, like roads, water, sewer and electrical.

The Highlands is a community of 811 homes, townhomes and apartments near the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus, which broke ground in September 2024 and is estimated to be completed by spring 2028. 

The developer, D.R. Horton, is turning to homeowners for funding because there are no nearby governmental entities, including Heber City, that “consider it desirable, feasible or practical to undertake the planning, design, acquisition, construction, installation, relocation, redevelopment and financing” of the public infrastructure, according to the meeting agenda materials.

Mayor Heidi Franco said that’s because of the area’s unique engineering requirements.

“We have sensitive lands. They’re sloped. They have other needs. Our drainage system, gravity, hydrology, it’s all factoring into extra costs for developing in these areas,” she said.

The Highlands developers are seeking to finance the community’s public infrastructure by creating three public infrastructure districts, also called PIDs. 

PIDs were introduced in Utah in 2019 and allow developers to impose taxes on homeowners within a defined district to fund public infrastructure in the area, rather than having all taxpayers in a municipality pay for it.

The Highlands PIDs would impose annual property taxes on the 576 homes and townhomes within them for 31 years, the estimated time for the bonds to install the infrastructure to be paid off. The 235 apartments would not be included in the PIDs.

These homeowners would pay about $500 in taxes for every $100,000 of their home value annually. In other words, a homeowner with a home valued at $600,000 would pay $3,000 annually, or $93,000 over 31 years, in addition to their other property taxes.

Curtis Leavitt Horton, senior land acquisition manager with D.R. Horton, estimated homes to be priced between $550,000 and $600,000, though exact numbers won’t be determined until August at the earliest. If the PIDs are not approved, developers would instead add $40,000 to each home’s purchase price.

Heber City would retain 5 to 10% of proceeds generated by the tax, as required by the city’s PID policy. The City Council could use the proceeds however it wished.

Max Martin, a development manager with Forestar Group, a subsidiary of the developer, suggested the funds be used on improving infrastructure near The Highlands. 

His ideas included upgrades to the public park within the development or connecting the asphalt trail alongside U.S. 40 between College Way and the Wasatch Commons apartments. Franco also suggested using funding for the Heber Valley Arts Center planned near the development. 

Heber City currently has two PIDs for developments: The Slope and Jordanelle Ridge. Both have the same tax rate as The Highlands and have dedicated 5 and 10% of proceeds to the city, respectively.

City Councilor Sid Ostergaard supported The Highlands PIDs because it would allow the development to be built more quickly. He was especially eager to get The Highlands’ 67 affordable housing units built. 

Eleven of these units would be priced at $218,000 to be affordable to those making 60% of the area median income, which is $81,720 for a family of four. Forty-four units would be priced at $338,000 to be affordable to those making 80% of the area median income, which is $108,960 for a family of four.

City Councilor Yvonne Barney was more skeptical than Ostergaard. She was concerned about the PID’s potential to inundate “penny-pinching” homeowners with extra costs.

Franco agreed.

“It is going to be very expensive for median range income, or even our affordable units that you’re talking about, to be able to pay those property taxes,” she said. 

Barney also referred to a cautionary memo about PIDs that State Auditor Tina M. Cannon released in March, after Wohali, a resort in Coalville with a PID, declared bankruptcy last August. 

Cannon cautioned governments to consider whether they were financially accountable for PIDs. This would mean governments would be responsible for the transparency of PID finances, such as by including PIDs in their financial statements.

That does not mean Heber City, for example, would be liable to pay The Highlands’ bonds for public infrastructure if the development did not go as planned. That would be the responsibility of property owners within the PIDs.

Creation of The Highlands PIDs would require a public hearing and a resolution by the City Council before developers submitted documentation creating the PIDs to the Lt. Governor’s Office.

But those first steps are not yet on track to be completed. 

The developers’ first stumbling block was their lack of defined numbers to compare a homeowner’s property taxes with or without the PIDs.

As previously mentioned, the home prices are not yet finalized. Additionally, the municipal property tax rates the developers referenced when comparing homeowners’ estimated taxes were outdated rates from 2024 and may change again in August, when the City Council will vote on a 5% property tax rate increase.

“I don’t understand why (these PIDs are) needed. The idea of cutting down the cost on the homes does make sense, hypothetically, but the numbers are not real,” Cheatwood said. “Understanding that, over the course of a mortgage, you might actually save money? That’s actually easy to prove and see. So let’s just prove it and see it with real numbers.”

The City Council will discuss the Highlands PIDs further on July 7.

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Heber City is rethinking an update to its stormwater master plan for the North Village area after discovering planned embankments may pose a risk to human life during a severe and improbable flood.

The North Village Overlay Zone constitutes several developments north of downtown. These include the 8,000-acre community Jordanelle Ridge on the east side of U.S. 40 and The Slope on the west side. The latter, 39-acre development broke ground in April in the North Fields, a freshwater wetland area that has been used as agricultural land for generations.

The stormwater master plan exists in part to protect these developments, which are in the path of stormwater runoff, from debris flows, also called mudslides.

An update to the plan would have included several embankments designed to hold stormwater runoff. 

City engineer Russ Funk said Utah Division of Water Resources representatives indicated that the largest of these embankments, planned for near Coyote Canyon Parkway, would likely be classified as a high hazard dam, and several other embankments would also likely be classified as high hazard — meaning it poses a risk to human life if the dam fails. 

Funk had anticipated the embankments being classified as moderate or low hazard.

High-hazard dams must be engineered to endure the maximum probable flood, the largest flood that could physically occur in the area. Maximum probable floods are astronomically unlikely.

In the North Village, the maximum probable flood would have a discharge of 1,200 cubic feet of water per second.

The embankment near Coyote Canyon Parkway is designed to handle a 100-year flood, a flood with a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in a given year. That means the embankment can handle a flood with a discharge of 160 cubic feet of water per second.

“Is (re-engineering and constructing the dam to handle 1,200 cubic feet per second) even feasible without completely cutting out another big, huge section of the mountainside there?” Funk said. “Is there a way to do it? Probably. Is it going to be expensive? More expensive than it would have been if it was moderate.”

North Village developers would build the embankments and be reimbursed by the city, which would own the embankments and be liable if they failed. 

“This is a real risk to the city, putting these dams above the city,” said City Manager Matt Brower. “Santa Clara, Utah, in (2012), had a failure of a dam similar to that. It flooded a third of their historic downtown, causing damage to all those properties within it.”

There is currently no risk to human life in the North Village area because these embankments have not been built.

These embankments were designed in response to public outcry about letting stormwater flow to the North Fields.

Stormwater in the area has historically flowed southwest to the North Fields from higher elevations on hillsides on the east side of U.S. 40. 

“Prior to the valley being developed and farmed … you can see (from) the natural topography (that) when a big storm would come, it would direct water down these natural drainages (and) would make its way through the North Fields to the Provo River,” explained Funk.

The construction of the Timpanogos and Wasatch canals in the late 1800s altered the flow of stormwater runoff, and the construction of U.S. 40 in the next century further changed it. 

That’s why most stormwater runoff does not flow into the North Fields like it once naturally did, Funk explained.

During the two-year process between 2020 and 2022 to develop the first stormwater master plan for the North Village, Funk and city staff pitched the idea of allowing stormwater runoff flow into the North Fields, which received significant public opposition.

That’s because there are two kinds of stormwater runoff, natural and developed, the latter having been polluted by flowing through roads and development. Both types would have been permitted to flow into the North Fields.

The city then devised a plan that separated natural and developed runoff, allowing only natural runoff to flow to the North Fields. 

Both kinds of runoff would first be detained at basins. Developed runoff would be treated and retained. Natural runoff would seep into the ground.

Any natural runoff that did not infiltrate the ground would be released into the North Fields. But that plan also received pushback from the public, Funk said. So, the city came up with the idea to hold the leftover natural runoff in embankments, the high hazard dams in question.

These embankments would be about 25 feet tall and would have significant aesthetic impacts.

The Division of Water Resources has not yet officially classified the hazard levels of the dams. Funk hopes they are ultimately classified as moderate or low hazard. In that case, the city would likely stick with the current plan.

But if any of the dams are high hazard, Funk would like to return to the design that permits leftover natural runoff to flow into the North Fields instead of being retained. 

City councilors did not vote, but all were amenable to the idea because natural runoff has historically flowed to the North Fields, and developed runoff would not be permitted to flow there.

How long it might take to work out the kinks in the North Village stormwater plan is unclear. 

For Franco, the fiasco represented “the cost of doing business” in “sensitive land areas” like the North Fields.

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As three major projects progress in Midway, developers of one — Southill — and city representatives say they are excited for what’s to come.

Southill aims to bring a “walking village” vibe to town with new amenities, eating establishments and townhomes for new residents. Dan Luster, developer and agent for Midway Heritage Development LLC, said a big part of the project’s story is preserving the city’s agricultural vision.

That also involves dealing with one of Midway’s most contentious topics: parking. 

But Luster said they have solved the problem. Instead of creating massive above-ground lots for residents and visitors, there will be underground parking available. Luster said it will actually be a requirement for residents of Southill homes to park underground instead of on the street. 

“The whole reason we are parking underground is to create a walking village,” Luster said. “Anytime you have density … it becomes a car apocalypse where there’s just cars on the streets.”

Because most residents will have at least two cars, Luster said Southill has gone to great lengths to park underground to hide the cars and the garages. By providing underground parking, each home — which Luster calls “attached cottages” — will have as many as four parking spaces. 

Midway City Councilor Andrew Osborne recently toured the Southill development to check on progress. 

“Instead of taking other space, (the land) can be utilized for open space, open view corridors and just an integrity to the visual feeling,” Osborne said. “Just overall beautification of the area that you’re not looking at a parking lot of cars.”

Osborne said the Southill project overall sets a “high bar.” He said the ideas that Southill has brought forward to preserve open space and view corridors can be applied to other developments in the city in the future. 

One of those plots of open space will be situated along Main Street and next to the upcoming tea house — Montblu, which will feature breakfast and lunch options. That’s where a grazing area for a small herd of sheep will be. Visitors will be treated to visits from the sheep, which will graze on the other side of the patio dining area.

Southill entered phase three of the five-phased project in December 2024. In March of this year, a conditional use permit was issued for the Montblu Bistro. Southill also features an underground spa that Luster calls “truly exceptional.” 

And Southill isn’t just focused on underground parking, but also on maintaining Midway’s architectural feel. The “old European” architecture of Midway’s Swiss heritage will be echoed in the Southill development in everything from the cottages to the restaurants and spa amenities. 

Each of the townhomes (or cottages) will be unique. Though the general European theme remains the same, Southill features a mix of architectural styles for doors, awnings, stonework and more.

The entire development is 27 acres and has seven buildings, plus 142 townhomes. Midway’s emphasis on developers, including preservation, means the development will also feature over 8 acres of open space. 

Luster said that townhome construction for phases one and two are completely sold out. The additional 41 homes under construction are sold as well. Luster said he believes the cottages are so popular because of the variety and unique aspects offered.

The homes additionally feature outdoor space. In a smaller 2,200-square-foot home, there will be a 1,400-square-foot outdoor footprint. That includes a rooftop balcony, which is hidden from view due to the angle of each home, and a patio on the backside of each townhome.

“Now, everybody gets amazing views,” Luster said, adding that the balcony offers both privacy and space for outdoor time.

In April, city planner Michael Henke said Southill is “looking even better than the pictures.”

Luster attributes that to the work developers have done to maintain Midway’s European feel. He said the development is modeled after towns in the English Cotswolds. Though he is a developer, Luster said he places great emphasis on low density wherever possible, plus open space and intentional amenities. 

Luster has been a part of projects like the Farm Springs subdivision in Midway, a neighborhood Luster himself said he wanted to live in, and Whitaker Farm. He also had a hand in writing Midway’s rural preservation code, which he said encourages “less dense growth.”

“That was kind of the beginning of saying, OK, maybe I can make a difference,” Luster said. “I was like, ‘wait a minute, maybe instead of stopping growth, I can be the growth and try to shape the growth,’ because it’s not going to stop when you’re this close to Sale Lake and Provo and ski areas.”

Inspiration for Southill comes from Luster’s time in England and the Hamptons. 

“(I did) a lot of international travel to Europe for my previous career, and I was always asking the question, ‘why can they build such charming villages and we can’t?’” Luster said, adding that implementations like underground parking will help that effort. “We want to enhance what Midway is.”

Luster said he wants Southill to feel authentic. That includes finding stone for the cottages and buildings that’s a perfect match — light colored and natural — to houses in the Cotswolds. Plus, slate roofs that feel old-fashioned. Southill photos show old-fashioned signage and plenty of landscaping, too. 

The property, visible from Main Street and at the base of Memorial Hill in Midway, is coming together slowly but surely. Though Luster is eager to finish construction, Southill is about two to three years from completion of all the residential homes.

Work on additional commercial buildings are next up for Southill. Those structures must technically be built before phases four and five can begin.

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Neil Goldman of Angstrom Development Group celebrated the groundbreaking of The Slope, a mixed-use community in the North Village in Heber City, on Thursday by recalling his childhood.

“When we were all kids, we built with LEGOs. We played with Barbies. We created a world that we wanted to see in our own minds. And we’re building that right now,” he said.

The project has been in the works for the past three years. It will be constructed in eight- to 10-month phases, with a full buildout anticipated in 2029.

It will feature 100,000 square feet of retail space, including “a hell of a lot of good restaurants,” Goldman said. During an open house in October, he and his development partners had estimated eight to 10 restaurants that would strike a balance between approachable and fine dining. 

One of these restaurants will be situated in a hotel developed by Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The Andaz Heber Valley hotel will have 85 guest rooms and 62 private condominium units.

Hyatt will also develop 140 four-bedroom villas starting at 2,900 square feet as part of the project.

The overall design of Andaz Heber Valley is inspired by the aesthetics of mountain lodges in Japan and Italy, according to designer Piotr Wiśniewski. 

The villas are geared toward wellness and families, said Tina Necrason, global head of Branded Residential at Hyatt. Each features a sauna and hot tub facing Mount Timpanogos. 

“We’re seeing a lot of younger families, I think everything from the generational wealth that’s transferring, to those who are looking for second homes. The market keeps expanding. So, we’re going to see families from everywhere, I think, not just in the U.S., but international,” Necrason said.

Angstrom Development Group previously estimated that 75-80% of the villa owners would use them as second homes. 

Necrason said the prices of the villas, condos and hotel rooms will be announced in the next three to four weeks. The permanent residences will be priced in the millions, if the estimates Angstrom Development Group provided before the Hyatt partnership was announced hold.

Angstrom Development Group estimates that The Slope will generate $4.45 million in tax revenue annually from the Andaz Heber Valley residences and hotel alone.

The group also plans to develop 130 multi-family affordable workforce housing units for employees who work on the development.

The central plaza is designed with event programming in mind for the broader Heber Valley community, not just community members who live in the development. 

And if Goldman’s childhood dreaming wasn’t evident enough, Angstrom Development Group has also planned to build a 200-foot-long tubing hill descending 45 feet from the roof of one of the buildings.

At the snowy groundbreaking, Goldman and his development partners used golden shovels to fling dirt with the help of their young children. Goldman said the five members of his development group are building the project for their children.

“This project started with (Goldman) and I dreaming about building something that we thought would be cool, that we thought we would want to bring our families to and enjoy together,” said developer Andy Dorobek. “And we knew if we did something that we liked, that there would be a lot of other people who would like it, too.”

Of the five developers, one, Ryan Miller, lives in Utah. The other four are from California and Texas, though Goldman has a second home in Utah. Miller has been developing “golf course communities,” hotels and resorts for the past 25 years. He moved to Park City eight years ago. 

The Slope will be the first development Miller has worked on in Utah. For years, he had been eyeing the nearly 40-acre parcel of land in the North Fields for development. When Goldman and Dorobek entitled the land, Miller introduced himself on LinkedIn, and they became fast friends and business partners. 

The Slope’s positioning in the North Fields has garnered backlash from some residents. The North Fields is a wetland area that has been used primarily for farming for generations. 

The controversial Utah Department of Transportation’s Heber Valley bypass, which will divert traffic off Main Street, is also planned in the area. The Slope will not be affected by its proximity to the bypass.

The foremost concern residents have about development in the North Fields is potential pollution of the pristine aquifer that lies underneath the area and much of Heber City, feeding into the Provo River.

The Heber City Planning Commission’s approval of a preliminary site plan for The Slope in December was delayed nearly two months by one resident’s concerns about the groundwater. 

Dan Simmons, a farmer and landowner neighboring The Slope, and Greg Poole, a civil engineer with Hansen, Allen & Luce, argued the methods used in The Slope’s third-party groundwater study were misleading because groundwater levels had only been measured once in August 2025 instead of being continually evaluated for seasonal fluctuations.

Simmons said he had observed groundwater rise above ground on his own property in particularly wet seasons. 

Heber City engineer Russ Funk hired another third-party engineer to review the groundwater study, who found no issues with how the study was conducted.

The groundwater study is intended to prevent pollution and ensure the development has stable foundations. The findings of the study required Angstrom Development Group to rework the civil engineering of The Slope. During the first phase of construction, the developers will also install a layer of dirt to ensure a minimum of 4 feet of dirt above historic groundwater levels per Heber City code.

Goldman and Dorobek have both called Heber City’s groundwater code more “stringent” than other municipalities. Funk said the same before the Planning Commission approved the preliminary site plan in December.

The developers are well aware of the concerns residents have about The Slope, but insist on an ethos of “conscious capitalism” — putting stakeholders, residents and the land above making a quick buck.

“This land, over 150 years ago, was first inhabited by the Mormon Battalion. … And ever since there, it’s been inhabited, and it’s been looked after, and it’s going to continue to get looked after,” Goldman said during his groundbreaking speech. “We’re going to make sure that we protect the aquifer underneath us. We’re going to make sure we protect the Provo River to our west. We’re going to make sure we protect the North Fields. And we’re going to make sure that each of you has a place where you can go and create memories and come back year after year.”

Dorobek’s response to why Angstrom Development Group had targeted Heber City for The Slope was, “Look at it.” 

“We’re nestled in this valley between all these beautiful mountains with a river right next door to us. We have lakes on both sides of us,” he said. “It’s a phenomenal place in this state, in this country, in the entire planet Earth. It’s beautiful here.”

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Russ Watts has owned and operated development company Watts Enterprises in Midway for 25 years. It wasn’t until he and several other contractors in the city performed an internal survey of their subcontractors and builders in 2022 that Watts realized just how many people were commuting in and out of the valley every day. Forty percent of respondents said they commuted because they couldn’t afford Wasatch County’s cost of living.

That survey inspired Watts’ Celebration Workforce Housing community, which aims to build a 142-unit apartment community in Heber City set aside for essential employees, including first responders, hospital staff, city and county employees and teachers.

Watts considers teachers “priority responders.” That’s why he’s prepared to reserve 50 units for Wasatch County School District employees. However, that comes with an ask: that the school district lease some of its property to Watts Development to build 178 parking stalls on. 

The Celebration Workforce Housing community would be located next to Wasatch High School. The project sprang from Watts’ conversations with Addison Hicken, whose family owns a large amount of land near the school.

Hicken had sold property in Heber City to Watts Enterprises before, land on which the developer built 116 condominium units in 2007. Twenty percent of those units were set aside for members of the local workforce and deed-restricted through the Wasatch County Housing Authority, which also covered down payments for the units’ buyers. Some of Hicken’s children bought units on the development, further cementing the relationship between the family and Watts.

As Watts and Hicken discussed affordability in the Heber Valley over a decade later, they came up with an idea for a workforce housing community. In 2022, Hicken donated 8.5 acres near the high school to Watts Enterprise to build just that.

The Celebration Workforce Housing project would build 142 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments on about half of the donated land. Further phases would construct additional housing, the details of which Watts is still working out. Heber City has only approved construction of the first phase at this time.

Half of the units would be priced at market rate. Forty percent would be affordable to those making 65% of the area median income (AMI), which is $109,590 for a family of four in Wasatch County. Ten percent would be affordable to those making 40% AMI, which is $67,440 for a family of four in Wasatch County. 

The community would be deed-restricted through Mountainlands Community Housing Trust.

The project has garnered financial support from the Wasatch Housing Authority, which is investing $750,000.

The Heber City Council has also invested in the project by voting to defer the project’s impact fees — one-time fees on new development — in December. While the agreement still needs to be finalized, Watts requested that about $3.1 million in impact fees be deferred up to 12 years, paid back at a 4% interest rate.

Watts told the Wasatch County School Board on Tuesday that the school district’s participation in a shared parking agreement is also essential for the housing development to work.

Watts has 366 parking stalls planned on his own site, but is looking to install 178 on school district property so he does not have to remove any apartments to accommodate more parking on his land. 

The total 544 parking stalls represents the parking needed for the complete buildout of the Celebration Workforce Housing Community, not just phase one of development.

The parking stalls would be shared by the school district, which would use them during the day, and the Celebration Workforce Housing Community, which would use them in the evening. 

Watts Enterprises would pay for and install the parking spaces, evenly splitting maintenance costs with the school district. Maintenance would include coating, striping and repair as necessary. 

The current school board members had mixed reactions to the proposal. 

School Board President Kim Dickerson wasn’t sure the school district needed additional parking stalls. District Business Administrator Jason Watt said they would most likely be used for events.

Board member Breanne Dedrickson was concerned that an agreement would use “public money to benefit private industry.” Dickerson agreed.

Dedrickson asked what would become of the project if the school board did not enter into the parking agreement.

“We won’t do the project. We’ll just tell the Hicken family, ‘Let’s walk away.’ … The Hickens would sell the property,” Watts said. “You’re a critical component. The city is critical. All the parties are critical. It just doesn’t pencil without (their support).”

The first 142 apartments will cost $43 million. Watts Enterprises anticipates a return on investment of about 6 to 7%.

Board member Brad Ehlert, who lives in a community developed by Watts Enterprises and said he loves it, wasn’t sure school district employees would jump on the opportunity. He said some family members had been offered a similar opportunity in Wasatch County but refused because they wanted to own rather than rent. They ended up moving away to fulfill their dream.

“Whether right or wrong, I think a lot of people believe part of the American Dream is owning a home,” Ehlert said.

However, Weston Broadbent, the district’s Career and Technical Education director, believed school district employees would jump on the opportunity. 

“I could go to any teacher right now that’s renting and say, ‘I have a place next to the high school for 1,500 bucks,’ and they would be all in,’” Broadbent said.

Broadbent, who worked as a real estate agent for two decades, is Watts’ neighbor and was Watts’ first contact in the school district about the project.

Watts will finalize a proposed agreement with school district employees before returning to the school board for a vote.

Watt expects the Celebration Workforce Housing community to break ground in 18 to 24 months.

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A community of affordable homes drew equal parts enthusiasm and skepticism from the Heber City Council on Tuesday as Provo-based developer FlexReady Homes presented a revised plan for its community of 42 units between Southfield Road and the Heber Valley Railroad. 

FlexReady Homes allows the owner to purchase a 1,200-square-foot, two-story, single-family home. The homes are constructed with the ability to be easily expanded upon with add-ons built by FlexReady Homes, like a garage or accessory dwelling unit, if the owner wishes to purchase them.

The base units are targeted to be affordable to those making 80% of the area median income, which is $109,120 for a family of four in Wasatch County. 

“Every homeowner around, and all of us (who) have had homes, have enjoyed the financial stability that comes from home ownership. So, our goal is to get people into homes, not rentals, homes that they can actually build out, invest in and enjoy,” said FlexReady Homes managing partner Curt Magleby.

Magleby and developer Brent Bluth, who works as the director of development with Self-Help Homes, but does not represent the nonprofit in his partnership with Magleby, first pitched the concept to the City Council in December. They wanted to gauge interest in the project before applying for a zone change through the Heber City Planning Commission, which requires final approval by the City Council. 

The zone change would accommodate the density of the project. With 42 units on the 4.11-acre property, the density is 10.22 units per acre. The current zoning of the property would likely permit up to six dwellings on the property, according to agenda materials.

In exchange for increasing the allowed density, the City Council’s request in December was to include some units that would be affordable to those making 60% AMI, which is $81,840 for a family of four in Wasatch County. 

Of the 42 units, 22 are base units, and the remainder are condominium flats affordable to those making 60% AMI. These flats are smaller than the single-family homes and would be sold to two tenants, one on the 780-square-foot top floor and another on the 960-square-foot bottom floor. Each has two bedrooms and one bathroom. The units do not have two-car garages like the base units do and are unable to be expanded with add-ons.

“We went through a lot of head-banging to get to that point,” Bluth said.

FlexReady Homes also plans to acquire the adjacent Heber Valley Assisted Living from the current property owner, George Bennett, and convert it into seven of its 20 condominium units. That agreement has not yet been finalized, but Bluth and Magleby said they were expecting it within two weeks. 

If the agreement with Bennett falls through, 16 of the 20 condominium units reserved for those making 60% AMI would be eliminated.

Brad Hiatt, who lives south of the site plan, raised concerns that the community of FlexReady Homes would negatively affect the character of his neighborhood and increase traffic. He compared the high-density development to a trailer park in the middle of single-family homes. 

Magleby pushed back against those concerns.

“There are some around each neighborhood that are concerned about others moving closer to them, but those are the lucky few that were able to purchase a home for cheap, when the land was cheap,” he said.

Hiatt, however, explained that he had once been pushed out of Heber City by high prices and had only moved back once he could afford to. He said that as the father of three children, he understood the need for affordable housing, but did not think FlexReady Homes’ target price of around $450,000 for a 1,200-square-foot base unit would be something his children would buy if they could.

City Councilor Mike Johnston said such a housing community would be essential to support employees who work in Heber City. 

“I know the NIMBY attitude, and I disagree with it,” he said. “It’s on a collector road, not driving through someone else’s neighborhood. Got a railroad behind it. There’s parks in this area. … There’s churches in this area you can walk to. It’s a great place for this kind of development.”

Although feedback from the City Council was generally positive, members weaved some skepticism into their own comments about the site plan.

City Councilor Yvonne Barney was concerned that the purchase of Heber Valley Assisted Living was not finalized. She said she was worried the price of the FlexReady units would increase if the agreement fell through because the developer would reduce the number of units and increase its costs. 

“If those units go down, will the cost of the project go up? Guarantee it will go up. You can count on it. That’s simple economics,” Bluth said. “And we have to look at it and say, ‘OK, will that still work?’ And that’s what we’ll look at before we even come to you.”

Barney had previously asked for an example of FlexReady Homes built in other communities as proof of concept. 

The company has 500 homes under contract and is negotiating with municipalities including Ephraim, Grantsville, Tooele, Eagle Mountain and Helper, Santaquin and Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Kauai, Hawaii. However, only a handful of those homes, located in Ephraim, are under construction.

City Councilor Aaron Cheatwood also wanted to ensure Heber City isn’t a “guinea pig.”

Heber City Community Development Director Tony Kohler suggested that stipulations could be written into a development agreement to “hold their feet to the fire” and ensure the start-up successfully followed through on the project.

Bluth offered to give city officials tours of the Ephraim homes once they were closer to completion.

Following the discussion, Magleby said he thought the project was moving in a positive direction. Once the purchase agreement of Heber Valley Assisted Living is worked out, FlexReady Homes will go forward in working with the city’s Planning Department to finalize a site plan and present it to the Planning Commission, then the City Council for final approval.

The post Affordable housing community to finalize site plan after Heber City Council feedback appeared first on Park Record.

Heber City’s population is expected to double over the next 20 years. To address that growth, the city is raising impact fees on new developments to help pay for infrastructure and maintain the city’s level of service. 

The Heber City Council approved an updated Facilities Master Plan for 2025 to 2045 with these changes on Nov. 18. This version of the plan has been in the works for over a year and was created by city officials and Horrocks Engineers.

Heber City’s current population is estimated to be 22,156. By 2045, that number will be 44,419. These calculations are from city staff and incorporate tweaks to data provided by the Mountainland Association of Governments, which was found to be “under-forecasting” growth in the North Village area, explained Horrocks Engineers principal engineer Willa Motley.

The total cost of improvements to streets and the water, sewer, storm drain, pressurized irrigation and parks and trails systems over the next 20 years is expected to be $215 million. Of that, 49%, or $105.4 million, will be paid through impact fees on new developments.

City operating funds and grants will cover a portion of the remaining costs. About $18.5 million of the $215 million price tag will come from city operating funds.

But Heber City engineer Russ Funk emphasized that the majority of contributions will come from developers, both through impact fees and voluntary contributions.

“People talk about cities building cities,” explained Funk. “In large part, developers are who build the cities.”

The culinary water, sanitary sewer, pressurized irrigation, parks and trails and streets impact fees are all increasing, as well as the monthly storm drain utility fee. Notably, the City Council voted to continue the 45% subsidy of the streets impact fee for non-residential developments. 

To Funk’s knowledge, that subsidy is paid for by the city’s transportation fund. The amount paid by the city over the next 20 years is expected to be $10.3 million, and is not included in the estimated $18.5 million coming from city operating funds to pay for the next 20 years of infrastructure improvements.

“The idea is that it would be an incentive to try to get more business that then provides more of a tax base,” Funk explained.

The full list of increased impact fees can be found in the online agenda for the Nov. 18 City Council meeting under section “Ordinance 2025-28 Adopting a Facilities Master Plan.”

According to a staff report compiled by Funk, a developer typically pays $13,688 in impact fees per residential unit built. With the new impact fees, that number will increase to $19,305.

A public hearing was held before the vote, but no one made public comment. The changes were approved unanimously by the City Council. 

“It’s tough for me to just keep these prices high, and I know it’s painful,” said City Councilor Mike Johnston. “But that’s the inflationary world we live in, and that’s the level of service we live in.”

The new Facilities Master Plan goes into effect Feb. 16.

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