Heber City is gaining some state recognition for its Envision 2050 plan. The Utah Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA Utah) recently presented Heber City with a High Achievement Award for the innovative community plan.
The APAUT award recognizes planning excellence. “It’s a really important thing for us to celebrate great plans . . . and to learn from those award winners,” said Chapter President Ted Knowles.
According to the Envision Heber website, “Envision Heber is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to contemplate the long-term goals of our city and imagine the future we want for ourselves, our families and our neighbors.” The plan was created using feedback from the community through public meetings, community open houses, workshops, and public surveys. Heber City’s new General Plan was then based on the input.
An award ceremony was held over Zoom on Wednesday, October 21, 2020. Several local officials and committee members were in attendance.
Heber City Planner Matt Brower stated, “This is quite an amazing award for Heber. We’re so honored to receive it for Envision Heber 2050. Never has a city undertaken such a comprehensive effort to outreach and try to garner as much input as we possibly could from the community.”
Morgan Brimm, head of the Awards Committee, read a prepared statement about the plan. “Heber City Envision 2050 recognizes that Heber City is at a crossroads with significant growth along the Wasatch Back. The city, the general plan steering committee, residents and consultants worked together to create a thorough public involvement process to ensure that the general plan captures a vision that represents Heber’s values and hopes for the future.”
Brower added, “As everyone knows, great things can’t happen without great people. Without [the City Council’s] vision . . . this would not have happened, and my hat’s off to them for supporting this.”
The Envision Heber 2050 plan is available here: https://envisionheber.com/.
