Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Heber City residents express concerns over increased traffic due to rapid growth.
- Plans for a bypass road by UDOT have been put on hold, frustrating locals.
- Additionally, residents face challenges with affordable housing and labor costs impacting small businesses.
HEBER CITY — Many residents said signs of growth can be seen on Heber City's Main Street, as many gravel, oil trucks, and semitrucks come through here. Not to mention the cars and RVs. Residents said it's long overdue for something to be done to alleviate that congestion.
Jan Olpin's family has continued to watch this town evolve and saw Main Street go from virtually no traffic to this.
"It really isn't the tanker as much as it's the community is growing so fast," Oplin said. "There is nowhere for people coming from their homes."
Talk with any locals, and that tops their list of concerns, including resident Calvin Patterson.
"It feels rural at times," Calvin Patterson said. "But when you go to get on the road, to get out of here in the morning and come back in the evening, (U.S. 189 and U.S. 40) are very congested."
Plans under consideration by the Utah Department of Transportation to put a bypass road to alleviate those traffic issues were just recently put on hold. That's no surprise to Olpin.
"UDOT bypass has been talked about my entire life," Oplin said. "My grandfather was on a committee in the early '50s."
But with the growing pains comes some of the other typical concerns. Olpin said it's hard to find workers who are willing to take wages that small business owners can afford.
"It's to the point where you can't afford a hamburger if I have to raise the prices so much more to pay employees," Oplin said.
And on the flip side of that are the younger generations struggling to stay here.
"I have children and grandchildren that have been in this country," Heber City homeowner Evelyn Wood said. "It's very difficult for them to find housing that's affordable, and that's a worry."
