Heber City’s councilors and mayor attended last week’s Wasatch County School District Board of Education’s meeting with the hopes of garnering support for their Community Reinvestment Agency project to revitalize downtown.
They received a relatively supportive, albeit hesitant, response.
“This is important to Heber City,” City Councilor Mike Johnston said. “We raised three kids here in this school district. They all went to J.R. Smith, they went to Rocky Mountain and they went to Wasatch High, and they excelled and thrived and I’m forever grateful to the school district.”
City Councilor Aaron Cheatwood said he went through the school district and now sends three kids of his own to school there.
According to the city’s plan as it was presented to Wasatch County officials early last month, it hopes the school district will agree to contribute 75% of its tax increment within the project area, which spans from the area surrounding the airport and runs through the center of town through 500 North. It also stretches from the center of town to encapsulate several blocks on the south end of Heber City, a large area to the west of Main Street and parcels northeast of where 500 North intersects with Main Street.
The amount is estimated to come to a $16 million contribution from the school district’s portion, and the purpose of the project is to further develop central Heber City into a downtown area, which would raise businesses’ revenue and tax bases to in turn allow the city to further invest in improved infrastructure development projects.
Currently, Cheatwood explained to school board members, the school district receives $97.1 million in tax revenue. The potentially affected downtown area, he said, contributes only about $3.8 million of that total, or around 3.9%.
That small percentage, he continued, is unlikely to increase under current stagnant development and environmental circumstances.
“We think there’s an opportunity to increase the tax base without increasing the workload, to bring more revenue and tax dollars in without bringing more student headcount,” Cheatwood said.
The Community Reinvestment Agency would take the existing tax base in the project area is not by taking away from the current tax revenue received by the school district, but by taking 75% of any increased tax revenue within the area for the duration of the agreement.
“As the CRA went into effect, as the valuations of those properties in that zone grow and they continue to make incremental increases, the incremental increase is what would be split,” Cheatwood said. “It makes good sense even in that 20 year build-up period because that growth is something that we don’t think is going to happen otherwise.”
At the end of 20 years, the school district would receive the entirety of its raised tax increment, which the project likely would have grown to a much more significant source of revenue than had the agreement never been entered.
School board members weren’t quite sold on the 20-year span of the project, though Johnston assured them the number came from data Zion’s public finance consultants provided about other successful community reinvestment efforts.
Johnston also talked about how the more successfully a project boosts the economy in Heber City, the less residents would need to pay in property taxes.
“Because of what’s coming up the hill, the whole MIDA project, we can’t lose our downtown,” he said. “We have to redevelop our downtown to keep our economy here in this valley strong.”
Despite Heber City’s promising pitch that could likely lead to a higher downtown tax base for the school district and a lower strain on taxpayers’ wallets, board members were still concerned about the logistics of the plan, how it will operate and what it will mean for the community.
When Johnston and Cheatwood displayed photos of downtown Heber City businesses with notably low tax values and revenues, a murmur of concern arose from the district board members when they noticed the beloved Chick’s Cafe made the list.
“What happens to Chick’s?” education board vice president Kim Dickerson asked.
“Either it’s renovated … or it will go away someday,” Johnston said.
Still, he emphasized, the city doesn’t intend to force anyone out of their business. Rather, the Community Reinvestment Agency would encourage renovations and improvements.
“You have a Main Street issue with the semis and the traffic,” Dickerson said. “Tell me how that’s going to work into this.”
“It will be gone by the Olympics,” Johnston said. “It really will.”
Dickerson said she’s heard from community members who are worried the school district would be devoting public education money to downtown investment.
“It’s wrong,” Johnston said of the concern.
“You need every single penny, and so does our city,” Mayor Heidi Franco said.
The public improvements, she said, will help the entire public, including tax-revenue collectors and teachers for whom the reinvestment project will establish affordable housing. The school district, Johnston added, will benefit far more than the city in the increased tax base, as the district gets 68% of property tax revenues compared to Heber City’s 8%.
“The school district is not writing a check for a single dollar,” he said. “You’re taking no risk.”
Still, if the district is going to join the project, Dickerson said they need to know they will be supported.
Board President Tyler Bluth thanked the city representatives for presenting a plan.
“Let’s get to work,” he said.