Henefer Town Council launches 20-year General Plan update, eyes commercial growth

The Henefer Town Council opened a formal update to its 20-year General Plan, with town planner Jake Young presenting a preliminary draft to the Town Council and the Henefer Planning Commission as the town prepares a public General Plan Workshop scheduled for February 19, 2026. The draft sets land use, transportation and commercial development priorities and is intended to guide council discussions with developers over the next two decades.

The draft map shows proposed residential expansion stretching north of East Canyon Road and south of 200 South, and it identifies two new parks within those potential neighborhoods. Planner Jake Young laid out an expanded local road network to the north and south to serve those zones and said the town should plan road infrastructure before developers build new neighborhoods to keep the street grid efficient.

Commercial planning on Main Street is a central change in the draft. The plan preserves the stretch between 200 North and 100 South as a potential commercial corridor but shifts the designated commercial core slightly north to the block between East Canyon Road and 200 North. That adjustment followed feedback from the Town Council and Mayor Kay Richins, who flagged an empty lot at the corner of 200 North as more likely to “spark” further development along Main Street than redevelopment of residential lots to the south.

Infrastructure and water capacity frame much of the plan’s policy choices. In October 2024 the Town Council adopted new water impact fees of $23,000 for single-family homes based on a study of current and future supply and infrastructure needs, and in December 2024 the council lifted a building moratorium after beginning work on a secondary irrigation system intended to draw water from the Weber River and existing irrigation ditches to relieve the town’s culinary water system. That irrigation project was expected to come online in Summer 2025, but construction had been paused because work began without required permits at the time the General Plan was drafted.

Regional growth and water stress also shape the town’s outlook. Summit County projections cited in planning materials show anticipated annual growth rates through 2050 ranging from 2.12 percent to 2.97 percent for Coalville, Kamas, Henefer, Oakley and Francis, and the Woodwell report’s water scarcity index flags high water scarcity across much of Summit County driven by unsustainable groundwater pumping in eastern areas. Oakley’s recent experience is a cautionary example: a 2020 wildfire nearly drained that city’s tank, Oakley lifted its moratorium in November 2023 after a new groundwater well doubled supply, the pump house suffered a gas explosion in April 2025, and the well officially came online in August 2025.

The General Plan update is a work in progress; the Town Council and Planning Commission reviewed draft priorities and mapped changes at the presentation and will use the plan to frame future developer negotiations and infrastructure investments. How the town reconciles Main Street commercial ambitions with water-impact fees, the paused irrigation project and housing affordability concerns will determine whether mapped growth in the draft becomes built reality over the next 20 years.