Livin' the high life in Heber City

Park City Glam Spreads South

By Amy Seigel, 11-13-06

Just south-east of the glitz and glamour of Park City’s main street is the little town of Heber City. Amazingly, despite its proximity to some of Utah’s most exclusive ski venues, Heber is still largely a ranching community full of sheep, sagebrush and wide open spaces. All of this may be about to change thanks to a proposed residential development that could increase the number of residences within the city's boundaries by 50 percent, and bring a little slice of Park City extravagance to Heber’s quiet, cowboy atmosphere.

According to the Deseret News, this new development—referred to as “Red Ledges” after its namesake area of red-rock cliffs and rolling hills just east of Heber City—is slated to encompass some 1,900 acres and include nearly 1,500 new home sites. But this is no ordinary subdivision. Red Ledges is going to be the sort of exclusive gated community—complete with equestrian center, tennis academy, and 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course—that most of us associate with the most exclusive vacation spots from Park City and Jackson Hole to Vail. Since Heber City is something of a bedroom community to Park City, it is a logical target for real estate investors looking to branch out.

While Heber may simply be the next town in line for yuppification, some of the town’s residents have genuine concerns about Heber’s ability to cope with the influx of new residents. Bart Mumford, a Heber City engineer involved in reviewing plans for Red Ledges, told the Deseret News that the new development would “definitely change the nature of the Heber Valley...With all the growth that we are experiencing up here, I don't think it will be the quiet little town it once was.”

Certainly, Heber’s two-lane roads are set to become anything but quiet. A traffic study commissioned by the developer of Red Ledges shows that it and other nearby developments will generate an additional 5,400 daily vehicle trips by 2030 on Heber City's Center Street. And while some, like Todd Cates, the project manager of Red Ledges, believe that many of the new residents will be second home owners and thus are unlikely to put year-round stress on Heber’s roads, plenty of existing Heber residents are not so sure. Furthermore, while most of the land, about 1,500 acres, falls outside Heber City limits, the city would likely bear the greatest traffic burden and thus be forced to pay for the expansion and/or addition of new roads.

But potential traffic jams are not the only concerns some Heber residents have about the proposed development. Bob Wren, the Wasatch County planning commissioner, also noted that “A lot of people have questioned whether we need a gated community in Heber. Does it really need to be exclusive?” asked Wren.

However, Exclusivity does have its upside. Millionaires don’t like to be packed in like sardines, so Red Ledges is set to include some 950 acres of open space—that’s close to half the size of the entire development. What’s more, the county hopes to put conservation easements on most or all of that open space, thereby protecting it from any future development. Since an extensive network of trails is already included in the plans for the Red Ledges community, it’s possible that Heber residents might find a little traffic a fair trade-off for protected open space complete with hiking trails—provided access to those trails isn’t limited to the development’s residents.

Traffic jams and open space aside, whether or not Red Ledges finally gets the go-ahead from Heber City and Wasatch County will likely have little to do with preserving Heber’s ranching past, and everything to do with an eye to its future potential. While many of us hate to see history and landscapes swept aside to make room for mega-mansions and 18-hole golf courses, these days, everything seems to have its price.

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