A committee of Wasatch local governments decided action needs to be taken on the long anticipated and delayed alternative route to ease traffic congestion in downtown Heber City. So they’re writing a letter together.
“This is a concept that came together a few months ago in the discussion of the corridor,” Heber City Councilor Yvonne Barney said last week at a Wasatch County Council work meeting with representatives from the Wasatch School District, Midway and Heber City. “The point and objective of this meeting was to bring together several entities within the community and to have a discussion and an agreement, and that agreement is something that we would present to (Utah Department of Transportation).”
She discussed the drafted letter intended for Carlos Braceras, the executive director of UDOT.
The document lists five objectives for a route the local governments can unify around: the route should preserve the valley’s North Fields as much as possible, should focus on quality of life and safety, should have limited access points to keep traffic moving, should consider and support Heber City’s long-term vision for a revitalized downtown, and should have minimal environmental impacts.
“We look forward to working with you, and UDOT Region 3 representatives, as you bring forward the results of the (environmental impact study) and make recommendations to finalize a corridor alignment that achieves the five priority outcomes listed above,” the letter states.
Barney said the purpose of the message is less to serve any one entity and more to promote communication among the local governments.
“Without communication between the entities, there is no action,” Barney said. “We start having frustrating conversations about who did what. … That’s what this is trying to eliminate.”
If progress isn’t made, she added that she’ll be 80-something years old and still be hearing community conversations that amount to tail-chasing.
“We want to make sure that whatever is done, it’s done the right way,” she said.
After a few minutes of discussion, she added a few sentences to her presentation that reflected what others were saying, “However, we want it on our terms. This is our community.”
Heber City Councilor Scott Phillips specified that the letter is also to show UDOT unity among the valley governments.
“UDOT’s been getting mixed messages,” he said. “What they’re seeking is some sort of unity supporting their process.”
Those “mixed messages” became prevalent when, after UDOT released five alternative routes for the corridor in summer 2022, Wasatch County passed a resolution strongly urging them not to pursue routes that cut through the North Fields.
While Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco and some council members expressed similar disdain for those routes, Heber City as a whole remained open to whichever route UDOT found to best match the needs of the community.
In March, Wasatch County Council voted to spend $2.3 million on a land conservation easement even after UDOT Project Manager Craig Hancock publicly said doing so could present a “significant barrier” and “send a mixed message to UDOT that the community not fully supportive of the process we’re in.”
“I asked them what’s most useful,” Phillips said. “What he said was useful is, ‘Can you think of some priorities that all of the entities can agree upon?'”
Those priorities are what made it to the letter, he said.
“If we can vote on them in our separate entities, that’s really all we need,” he said. “We’re not trying to perfect it. We’re not trying to get it to exactly how we want the bypass.”
On top of the letter, Barney encouraged each entity to reach out to UDOT with their individual questions and share what they find.
“This is a valley-wide issue,” she said.
Phillips agreed, saying that Google Maps has started sending travelers going from Provo to Park City through Midway.
“Midway is, by default, becoming the bypass route,” he said.
Representatives decided to take the letter to their local governments, and Phillips encouraged them not to stray from what had already been compiled, but to vote on the letter.
“It doesn’t need a lot of discussion,” he said. “Do you want to vote on this or not? … We don’t need to have four different letters and try to merge it into one.”
Wasatch County Councilor Mark Nelson shared his respect for everyone but warned those who prepared the letter they wouldn’t like his comments. He said UDOT officials have often heard everything in the letter, and saying you support something but adding five conditions is a bit of a conundrum.
“If we really want to say we support them, just have the letter end after the first paragraph,” he said. “They know all of these things, and all of these things are obstacles.”
Barney said UDOT hasn’t heard all of the concerns from the unified governments, and the letter just shares community priorities, not restrictions.
Eventually, the community leaders decided to consider the letter in their individual meetings and readdress it as a group in August.