Heber: Say hello to Wal-Mart.

Despite a large grass-roots effort to stop the big-box giant from building in the small mountain town, residents Tuesday night voted 1,433 to 1,327 for a new zone that will allow retail outlets up to 150,000 square feet in Heber.

The margin was narrow: 52 percent for, 48 percent against.

Now, developer Boyer Company will work on site plans and permits for a 70-acre mixed-use development project off Main Street. It will be the largest commercial development of its kind in Heber, and opponents were understandably crushed Wednesday.

"If it was a wide margin, it wouldn't be so painful. But we're stuck with Wal-Mart," said Ken McConnell, a 27-year Heber resident and member of the group Put Heber Valley First.

That group formed after the Heber City Council in February passed an ordinance allowing big-box stores into the quaint town that has avoided such development for years. They succeeded in placing a referendum on the ballot, collecting enough signatures to allow voters to decide whether projects of Wal-Mart's proportions are welcome.

"That's what the people have chosen," McConnell said about the vote. "We live in a democratic society. Sometimes you eat the bear — sometimes the bear eats you."

Put Heber Valley First worries a Wal-Mart will add to the already congested traffic, shut down local business and damage the hometown atmosphere.

McConnell compares their fight to a modern-day David and Goliath and points to the numbers — Put Heber Valley First raised about $4,000 for their campaign, while estimates put Boyer Company's spending at $300,000.

Developers, however, promise convenient shopping minutes from home — something residents have been complaining about to the city for years. Most residents drive to neighboring Park City, Provo or even Salt Lake for shopping.

"We feel like once voters really understood the full nature of the project, that it's not just a big-box, that it's a full shopping district that could bring in 30 other tenants, we got a lot of positive reaction to that," said Wade Williams, Boyer Co.'s director of retail development. "I think people understood it's more than just a big box."

Boyer Co. will begin plotting out roads in the new project, which sits at the junction of Main Street (U.S. 40) and U.S. 189 — a busy, traffic-congested area in the town. Boyer has donated eight acres of new roads to the city and will construct them for $8 million. Three new main roads will be built: 300 West will extend through the property, U.S. 189 will be extended to five lanes and 1300 South will be built with a traffic signal.

So far, Boyer Co. has contracted with Wal-Mart to build in the location. There have been preliminary discussions with other tenants, but nothing was final pending the Tuesday vote.

A mix of single-family and townhome-style housing will be a buffer between residents to the west and the commercial development.

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com