Spread across the Heber Valley are eight storage units filled with wigs, costumes and props.High Valley Arts has presented 49 productions between Midway Town Hall and a seasonal outdoor playhouse since its 2009 founding as a theatrical nonprofit. Players rehearse at their downstairs studio space in Midway’s Olde Swiss Square. Loading, transporting and unloading supplies from scattered locations adds hours to the production design, with five days scheduled for each set assembly and disassembly by 40 volunteers.“We build everything on driveways, and you can’t keep building sets on driveways. We’ve been doing it for 15 years now,” founder Sue Waldrip said. Waldrip has a plan to bring High Valley Arts’ operations together under one roof. A rendering by architect Clayton Vance imagines the Midway Arts Center on 1.6 acres for sale on the south side of Midway’s East 300 Main Street block. The lot listed by Realtor Heather Baugh at $2.9 million is currently pastureland between a house and Midway Plaza, a two-building commercial park. It’s part of an 8-acre parcel available to be divided into four units. A rendering of the center shows a white wooden building with broad front windows beneath dormers, a gabled entranceway and a cupola between two chimneys on top. A black box theater and facilities fill a west wing set further back from Main Street. Waldrip estimated total construction costs at over $40 million.“Since the land is there, we can buy it. I just need to know what the City Council wants,” said Waldrip. “All we’re asking is they give conditional approval to the word ‘theater.’”In September, Midway residents Rich and Kim Cliften presented on the Midway Arts Center and a code text amendment before Mayor Celeste Johnson, three City Council members, staff and meeting attendees. The center would feature a 450-seat main theater and a 212-seat black box, along with rehearsal and storage space in a 26,000-square-foot home for High Valley Arts. The problem is that this land is currently zoned C-2, which under Midway codes does not allow theaters, a category only permitted in Midway’s resort zoned areas. Theaters had been included in Midway’s C-2 zoning until 2019, when they were deleted in a restructuring of commercial zones. Potential two-venue layout for Midway Arts Center. Credit: Courtesy of High Valley ArtsThe City Council expressed future willingness to discuss an overlay zone, but said the applicants should not purchase any property based on that willingness.“That meeting was basically there to get a feel for things and to give us direction for the future,” Rich Cliften said. “Their concerns have given us ideas of ways in which to move forward.”The council had concerns over building size, the view, parking and event traffic. Next summer, UDOT is set to install Midway’s second stoplight just east of the site, at the intersection of Main Street and River Road, which will break up traffic but also cause it to back up. High Valley Arts commissioned a site traffic study by Hales Engineering that states that theater traffic will occur later than the peak-use hours. The study also notes that 125 cars can leave the lots in 10 minutes. High Valley Arts mentioned their success managing equivalent crowds at their outdoor summer theater as proof that traffic will not be overwhelming. Still, such crowd traffic would occur more frequently at a permanent theater location.“The council is not opposed to having a theater, but they have universally been pretty opposed to the size of what’s been proposed,” said Johnson, the mayor since 2018. “The property that they’re looking at on Main Street, while it might be a great option, there’s still a lot of concern about the general size of what is being proposed.”  Midway city planner Michael Henke noted that the maximum number of seats were reduced from 500 to 450, and Waldrip said an original plan that included a bell tower was also scaled down, and earlier proposed height amendments to city code have been dropped. Waldrip has produced an overlay comparison where Midway Arts Center’s 94-foot frontage occupies a smaller front face than either Midway Town Hall or the Olde Swiss Square building. High Valley Arts considers the 450-seat main theater standard size for a new theater and the 212-seat black box building would allow for further programming versatility. However, they would be willing to move forward on a smaller main theater or even a one-stage venue if they must.Midway’s City Plan encourages businesses “to develop shared parking partnerships that combine parking and reduce overall land consumption.” To that end, Olde Swiss Square is willing to contribute its 60 off-site parking spots two minutes away, otherwise empty during theater hours. The Midway Arts Center is planning parking accommodations of one spot for every 3.8 attendees, lower than Midway’s theater parking requirement of one parking spot needed for every four people, and is willing to negotiate theater seating to bring ratios even lower.“Here we are, it’s our last effort. Either our 17-year tradition will die, or it will live,” Waldrip said.High Valley Arts’ quest to build a center has been under discussion for the entirety of Johnson’s tenure as mayor. In 2018, High Valley Arts was planning to build the Midway Arts Center in the development now under construction on the north side of Main Street beneath Memorial Hill. A change in developers stopped this plan, then High Valley Arts began to explore their current Main Street option in 2022. Since High Valley Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit, the Midway Arts Center would not contribute to Midway’s tax base as another business or residence does. “In a commercial district as small as ours, that tax base is very, very important,” Johnson said. “That’s one of the ways we obviously get revenue as a city. A theater does not give us tax base.” Waldrip referenced a report from the Utah Cultural Alliance Foundation showing $10 billion in indirect spending from the Utah cultural industry in 2021, an amount that nearly equaled direct spending of $10.1 billion. “The studies have indicated that the city of Midway will get $10 million out of the theater in the first 10 years,” Waldrip said. “So it’s not as good as if they could collect from the tickets, but it’s equal.” Waldrip foresees the Midway Arts Center as an eastern hub for Main Street near numerous local establishments and lodging. “When you put a non-profit theater in any town, it builds the whole town. Every theater builds the whole town,” Waldrip said. “They’ll make more from a theater than they will from any other building going in that spot.”Waldrip said High Valley Arts has the money to purchase the land now and will begin fundraising for the center immediately, should the City Council grant approval. The Midway Arts Center would be built with private donations and no city funds will be needed, according to the group.In a facility of its own, High Valley Arts would plan to offer an expanded performance schedule featuring seven-month-long shows as well as four youth productions. The year-round programming could lead to greater shoulder-season income for surrounding business and would leave three months of the year free for community rental usage, with rates lowered through a maintenance endowment. Waldrip proposes event ticket prices topping out at $25 for adults, with lower prices for children and a continued focus on community affordability. High Valley Arts commissioned a study with Lighthouse Research in November 2023 that showed 67% of Midway residents were in favor of such a facility, with 17% neutral.“Rather than doing something that puts the city in a risky situation, like saying, ‘OK, now we’re going to allow theaters because we have a theater group that wants to come in,’ we would probably say we would allow this theater at this square footage. If they brought a proposal the council felt good about, then a change would be made tied to that project,” Johnson said.As more growth comes to the Heber Valley faster than UDOT can plan for, Waldrip said newcomers will go “somewhere” for entertainment. Utah is third in the nation for cultural event attendance, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. Rather than losing these entertainment dollars to Park City or Salt Lake Valley, Waldrip said she considers the Midway Arts Center an ideal way to keep community dollars in the Heber Valley. The Heber Valley Arts Center is projected to be completed above Heber City’s Utah Valley University campus in 2029. Many local arts groups are in discussions to use this facility, but Waldrip said that High Valley Arts using this arts center would be a space rental situation equivalent to their current state of affairs. “We would still be storing our stuff in eight different places and building on driveways,” Waldrip said. “We need a home.” Sam Wilson, Brandon Osmond, Leonard Wilkerson, Betty King and Mayla King rehearse for “A Christmas Story: The Musical.” Credit: Courtesy of Galen DeKemperYouth programming is another aspect of High Valley Arts that Waldrip considers a permanent residence would benefit, as their children’s shows would be able to stage seasonally rather than the current two shows annually. The foundation presented a four-night run of “The Jungle Book Kids” musical in October and has “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” on their children’s calendar in the spring. “160 kids auditioned for 60 slots” in “Jungle Book,” Waltrip said. “That’s how popular it is. We’re willing to do whatever we have to do, because it’s just so good for kids.”Waldrip also has a fondness for Midway particularly, where High Valley Arts has lived and performed for a decade and a half. The Heber Valley Arts Center will be on the east side of Highway 40, while Midway is tucked into the valley’s western rim. “We entertained 10,000 people each of the last four years. We’re hoping that the next time this comes before the City Council they’ll see this is an advantage to people,” Waldrip said. “We have got to know. We can’t just go on not knowing if we’re doing something that’s going to last, or something that’s not going to last.” High Valley Arts plans to present their final proposal to Midway City Council for a vote by the end of this year. The proposed location for Midway Arts Center. Credit: Courtesy of Galen DeKemperThe post High Valley Arts finds its quest to build a dream performance center quite a production appeared first on Park Record.