Heber group fighting to keep Wal-Mart out

HEBER — Heber City, with its small-town charm and rural mountain atmosphere, attracts hundreds of new residents to the quaint bedroom community each year. It's one of the nation's boom towns but manages to rely on a mix of local businesses for goods and services. A lone McDonald's and Smith's are some of the few chain stores that dot Main Street.

That's about to change.

The picturesque valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains and clustered with old-time ranches may be getting a new image to its landscape: the red, neon lights of a Wal-Mart.

"In my opinion, they're a predator. Heber is noted for their hometown atmosphere, and that is going to die," said Ken McConnell, a 27-year Heber resident who helped revive the Heber Valley Railroad in the 1990s.

McConnell is part of a grass-roots group Put Heber Valley First! that quickly formed after the Heber City Council passed an ordinance last month allowing such big-box stores. The ordinance adopted a mixed-use residential-commercial zone that would allow big-box stores as well as mixed housing to act as a buffer separating the retail segment from adjacent neighborhoods.

The group has already started the referendum process to let voters decide whether they want big-boxes in their quiet town. The ordinance will go to a vote if the group can collect signatures within 45 days from 35 percent of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election.

Residents worry a Wal-Mart will add traffic, shut down local businesses and turn their town of about 9,000 into Anywhere U.S.A.

"Heber's definitely growing and we're fine with new businesses, but businesses that fit with the community," said Cydnee Diamond, manager of the 12-year-old shop Water from the Moon. The eclectic store sells a unique variety of jewelry, clothing and furniture from all over the world. But they're goods Wal-Mart also offers.

"It's all about believing in our town. I hate to see it as another small town gobbled up by the big guys."

On top of that, there's the Pleasant Valley Trailer Park off Main Street where developer Boyer Co. wants to build the Wal-Mart and maybe even a Lowe's.

Doug Heiner, who owns the 35-year-old, 89-unit park, said Boyer is looking at the site, but he hasn't sold it yet. He adds: "I would sell it to the first person who has cash in hand." Heiner said his family has always wanted to build a new mobile home park on other land he owns. He blames the city for being a roadblock, "silently saying no" to sites he's pitched.