Heather Newell on Civic Service & Preserving Lehi's History

Heather Newell shares her journey from concerned resident to Lehi City Council member, and her work designing historical enamel pins for the Lehi Historical Marker Program. Watch the full interview.

Heather Newell on Civic Service & Preserving Lehi's History

Heather Newell shares her journey from concerned resident to Lehi City Council member, and her work designing historical enamel pins for the Lehi Historical Marker Program. Watch the full interview.

Heather Newell on Civic Service, City Planning & Preserving Lehi's History

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Who Is Heather Newell, and Why Does Her Story Matter?

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Episode Overview

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Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

One Issue, One Voice, Real Change

An Unexpected Connection with the Mayor

Thrown Into the Deep End: The School District Split

Designing History: The Mary Wless Pin

From Backyard Advocate to Planning Commission Chair

A Family Adopted into Lehi's Heritage

Pins That Sell Out in a Week

The Real Work of Regional Collaboration

Historical Insights About Lehi

Community and Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics

Photo Opportunities for Historical Archive

Full Transcript

Heather Newell Lehi Utah City Council Historical Markers Interview - Roots & Branches of Lehi Podcast

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From a concerned resident fighting a neighborhood development to Lehi City Council member and creative force behind the Historical Marker Program—Heather Newell's journey shows how one person's voice can shape a city's future.

Work Hard Mortgage helps families achieve the dream of homeownership in Lehi and across Utah.

In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , host Ryan Harding sits down with Heather Newell , a Lehi City Council member whose path to public service began not with political ambition, but with a single development issue in her own backyard. Her story is a powerful example of how everyday residents shape the future of Lehi, Utah —and how civic involvement can grow from a moment of personal concern into a lifetime of community leadership.

Heather shares her journey from growing up in Orem to becoming a deeply involved member of the Lehi community, eventually serving on the Planning Commission and City Council. Her path wasn't planned; it began with learning city code, attending meetings, and advocating for her neighbors. As she explains during the interview, "I caught that and it delayed their development for over a year," showing how one resident's voice can make a real impact on Lehi's growth and development .

Beyond city planning and zoning, Heather has become a creative force behind Lehi's Historical Marker Program , using her 25-year background in web and design to help preserve local stories through beautifully crafted enamel pins and community events. From the Saratoga Resort to pioneer Mary Wless , her work captures moments that might otherwise be forgotten. Whether she's navigating complex land-use decisions, strengthening regional partnerships with neighboring cities, or helping families connect with Lehi's past, Heather embodies the kind of grassroots civic leadership that keeps small-town values alive even as the city transforms around them.

For anyone interested in Lehi, Utah history , local government , historical preservation , or the stories behind Lehi's rapid growth , this interview offers both practical insight and heartfelt inspiration. Heather's perspective reminds us that community change often starts with a single person willing to show up, learn, and speak up.

Prefer to listen? This episode is also available on <a href="https: <a href="https:

Heather Newell

Lehi City Council Member; former Planning Commission Chair; volunteer designer for Lehi Historical Marker Program

1990s–2020s, with references to pioneer era and the 1983 Lehi flood

Ryan Harding

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Heather describes how a development issue near her home pushed her into city involvement, leading her to study city code and ultimately influence meaningful changes. She recalls catching major errors in a development project, delaying it for over a year and realizing she could make a difference for residents. "Things were changed because of things that I brought up," she reflects—an experience that ignited her passion for public service.

Heather shares how she unexpectedly connected with Mayor Mark Johnson during her Planning Commission interview, despite previously only disagreeing with him in public meetings. She was nervous about the interview, having only ever stood up at city council to oppose his positions. Instead, she found him "incredible," and they made a "great connection"—a moment that reinforced her belief that respectful disagreement can lead to collaboration.

Heather tells the story of being thrust into the school district split process just one day after being sworn into office. Despite being brand new, she became the key researcher and spokesperson for Lehi's position. She recalls being sent to do interviews just five months into her term, with other cities preferring to let "the newbie" handle the public pressure. She wrote critical position statements "in the dark" without staff support, ultimately helping shape an outcome that was better for all parties.

Heather tells the deeply personal story of designing a historical pin for Mary Wless, a 14-year-old pioneer girl who crossed the plains with her younger siblings and disabled father after her stepmother passed away. Heather spoke at the unveiling and says she "became very personally close to her." She wears the pin to the temple and has heard of others doing the same. "If I hadn't been a part of this, I wouldn't have known her story."

After joining the Planning Commission, Heather became chair just a year and a half later—"probably the fastest anybody's ever become chair," she notes, and as the only woman on the commission at the time. She soon realized that if she wanted to solve problems rather than simply approve or deny applications, she needed to be on the City Council, where she could work directly with applicants, staff, and other elected officials.

Heather reflects on how her children have become invested in Lehi history. Her oldest son asked how to join the Historical Society. "It's becoming a part of us," she says. "They know the stories. They're learning the history of this." Despite having lived in Lehi for 23 years, she describes her family as "adopted into the family," emphasizing that heritage in Lehi is about participation and love for the community, not just generational roots.

Heather describes the overwhelming community response to the Historical Marker Program's enamel pins. At one event, the pins "sold in a week what they normally sell in a year." She took over the manufacturing side, researching direct manufacturers in China to improve quality and reduce costs. The pins now feature detailed backing cards with historical information, and designs like the roller mills and rodeo pins have sold out and required second orders.

Heather shares how the school district crisis built lasting relationships with city council members across northern Utah County. She now gets calls almost daily from other cities asking, "What has Lehi done? What do you suggest?" She emphasizes that without trust and relationships, political boundaries become barriers. "If we don't have that relationship and it's politics and everybody's kind of guarded, we don't figure out the solution together."

Heather's interview reveals fascinating details about how Lehi has evolved and how its past continues to shape its present. Here are key historical insights from her perspective:

Throughout the interview, several broader themes emerge that reflect the values and challenges facing Lehi as it grows while trying to maintain its character:

This episode connects to the broader Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Explore these related topics to deepen your understanding of Lehi's history and community:

To enhance this community profile, consider adding these visual elements to the historical record:

Ryan Harding: Welcome to Roots and Branches of Lehi, the podcast where we get to know the faces, stories, and lives that make up our community. I'm Ryan Harding, and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live alongside. Growing up in a small town, I learned that connections go beyond blood. They're built through shared experiences, friendships, and the moments we celebrate together. Each week, we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their unique story, their passions, and what they love most about living here. So whether you've been here for years or just arrived, join us as we deepen our roots and reach out to our branches one story at a time.

Ryan: Welcome Heather Newell to the podcast Roots and Branches of Lehi. Excited to have you here and get to know you a little bit better and get to know what you're doing here in the city and all that kind of stuff.

Heather Newell: Sounds great. Thanks for having me on.

Ryan: Well, so let's get to know you first then. Tell me you're from Lehi. Where are you from? Where'd you originally grow up and stuff?

Heather: So um I was born in American Fork. Yeah, not too far down. Eighth generation. Um, my fifth great-grandfather was the founder of American Fork, C. Shipman. Um, but my parents moved really early on to Orem. So, I grew up in Orem. Like did all my school days there.

Ryan: Okay. And then so what brought you to Lehi?

Heather: So, when I got married, it was trying to find a place to live. Orem was expensive then and you know Lehi was just starting to kind of build up and we could find a house there. We had some friends who had moved out on Pilgrim's Landing and so we found a house there and we built three homes in Lehi but that's the requirement for my husband is we have to stay in Lehi.

Ryan: Sure. He always loved Lehi. He's from Scotland.

Heather: And so his grandmother married um a Triname. And so his grandmother lived over here at one point and made some friends. So for him he always saw Lehi as a place like you know that's the goal where he wants to be. He always imagined that so he always wanted to be in Lehi.

Ryan: And so what brought Scotland and American Fork together? How did you guys meet?

Heather: So um I was at BYU. This was back in the like late 90s and there was a Y chat chat room and he was in Glasgow and so he would get on at night while writing papers. He was LDS and we would chat then and that's how we ended up connecting. Back then you would never tell anybody that. There was no like dating sites or anything. It was just this BYU chat room and yeah so that's how we ended up. And then after he graduated he came over to stay with friends of his grandmothers and that's when we actually met.

Ryan: That's awesome. So now living in Lehi many years later. Do you ever go back to Scotland? Does he still have family there?

Heather: He does. We try and like he took our oldest son for a senior trip back there. It's hard to get everybody over and get housing and cars. We would bring his parents over for a couple of months at a time. So I've been back. I'd love to take the family there especially to do a real tour of Scotland and not just go walk up and down the high street and see friends and family—let's go see your heritage.

Ryan: Well, okay. So tell me, you're right now on the city council. Is that right?

Heather: Yes.

Ryan: So is that something you always wanted to do or tell me about that?

Heather: No. No. I'm like somebody who is always like don't put me in front of the spotlight doing any of this kind of stuff. But it's kind of funny. You look back at things that I've done and somehow I found myself there. There was like I think often times with a lot of people there's a single issue, something comes up in your backyard and so I ended up getting involved and going to meetings and talking about this issue and learning a lot. And things that I presented like I started studying code. And things were changed because of things that I brought up. And so that was kind of like a thrill. And there was things that I caught with the development that was done wrong that weren't done as they said they were going to do according to what they promised they made during city council. And I caught that and it delayed their development for over a year. So it's like, wow, I'm making a difference. There was things that happened with that development where I saw, hey, if I knew then what I know now, I think I could have made a better impact. I could have done things better. I could have seen things different. So I saw that as a hey I can help people. I can help people that are facing these same kind of things.

And so the thing that was really cool is because of that I started develop genuine relationships with people on city council. And so when a planning commission spot came up they said hey we really want you on that. And I'm like okay but I need to interview with the mayor. And I really haven't had a lot of interaction with the mayor other than standing up in city council and disagreeing with him. So like I don't know how he's— that may not be the interview I want, right? He may not go for that. And so I sat down with him and he was just incredible and we made this great connection and I'm just like, "Wow, I want to be a part of this because it's like there's things that we can disagree on and I've learned so much in the process of things where like I was wrong on it and become better." So they put me on planning commission a year and a half later they made me chair. Like probably the fastest anybody's ever become chair, you know, also being a woman. I was the only woman on the planning commission until um Emily Lockheart joined right after me. But yeah, it was a really cool experience.

And then just kind of got thinking a lot of what's coming through on planning commission, I want to solve the problem. And you don't do that on planning commission. You look at what the applicant brings in. Does it fit the code? And if it yes, then it moves forward. But you're not there to really say, hey, you could do this better or I can work with you. You can't even talk to the applicant before meeting. It's really you're really there just to look at it and does it, you know, does it work? So it really felt like, okay, if I'm going to help make things better and make change, then city council is where I need to be.

Ryan: Speak to that for a minute as far as like because a lot of people sometimes will get mad, oh, I can't believe Lehi's letting XYZ build something, right? You know, but like your hands are kind of tied on a lot of things, right? I mean there's property rights and different things. Speak to that I guess for a second just to kind of shed some light on.

Heather: Yeah. When I joined planning commission one of the things that was happening at the time was the general plan that we're adopting into a general plan. And to me and that's what I ran on—follow the general plan because that's what really kind of took me off guard and got me involved is because the development that went on next to me was not following the general plan. You know and there was exceptions made. So I think that's that's really hard as residents to kind of have an expectation what's going to be there. But I think the hard thing for residents is when uh an applicant comes in and they're presenting a zone that fits the general plan. You know, the public thinks like we have a choice to say like, oh, you know, you're allowing high density here. It's like, well, that's what the general plan allows. So, their property rights have already been entitled. So that's a really difficult thing I think for the public and as much as we try and educate to be able to help them understand you're one piece of this and your part in this public hearing is to help us to mitigate things and make sure we have protections in place. But when it comes to the rights of the property owner once we put that on the general plan and decisions have been made long before I was ever on council. Like they're entitled to that.

Ryan: And I'm guessing to change the general plan is difficult to do a lot of times, right?

Heather: It's like we can't go and so like if we want to change a general plan, we can't take somebody's property and say, "Oh, you know, you actually can have like five homes per acre, but we think that's too much. So, we're going to make it so you only have two." No, we've just taken their right and we've violated their fifth and 14th amendment rights. We're not paying them for it. Because the value would obviously go way down in that scenario. So if we feel like it's overbuilt, either we need to go buy the land or we need to buy their density back from them. And the council's had to do that in the past where they have allocated too much density. So it's big decisions when you start to entitle things that you can't take back.

Ryan: And I assume that happens on the reverse, too, where somebody's like, "Hey, this was residential, but I'd like, you know, Pioneer Crossing is now here, can I make it commercial?" You know, or something like that, right?

Heather: Sometimes that happens. And I'm guessing the reverse is, hey, you know, can't do that. Or, you know, or maybe it's probably pretty difficult to do, I guess. Kind of sometimes you look at that, too. It's like, hey, I've got this residential piece, but it's completely surrounded by commercial. It's an island. It doesn't make sense. And you can look at that and say, "Yeah, it doesn't make sense. You've got this big road that's built next to you." So, that's the thing is like the city council is a land use authority. Like, we have the ability to change those things. But if we're trying to take away, that's when we get in trouble.

Ryan: So, you can add to it. But if you take away, you got to compensate, I guess, or do something because otherwise that person just lost.

Heather: Yeah. Like somebody has a heavy commercial and we're like, ah, we don't think you should have that. We're going to make it commercial. We've just taken away rights that they had before. Sure. Which which we can't do, right? Even if we're like, hey, well, there's too much traffic. You know, we don't want too much high. I mean, that's a big thing right now, right? You know, is and so it's the traffic. That's the thing that's like cracking me up. It's like, why you keep on adding high density? You go back and look at the general plan—there's been zero places where we have allowed high density that was not already allocated on the plan. So this is just as more people are being like, hey, this was already there. Like, we were already planning to do this. It's just maybe it's happening quicker than people want because it's growing so fast. Lehi is.

Ryan: Well, and I want to go back to I like I want to go back because there's a lot of contention sometimes in politics, right? And I like what you said about, you know, hey, I had an interview with the mayor and all my only interactions was disagreeing with him, right? But so talk to me about that side of politics, the positive side of, hey, you know, I'm on this side, you're on this side, but like let's come together and figure this out, right? We're not enemies. We're not, you know, this isn't good and bad, angel and devils, you know, kind of thing, right?

Heather: And that's the stuff I love. I would rather be in a room with somebody who has a different idea and work through it and see where we can get to a better spot. Um, I was heavily involved with the stuff of the school district and the split and doing, you know, I was really the one who was doing all the research behind that and trying to figure out where Lehi was going to go. Because, you know, at the beginning of this, we were heading in a different direction. That's where counsel was. And it was me just doing the research and digging in and being like, "Hey guys, this is this is not going to be good. It's going to it's not going to be good for us. It's not going to be good for them. You got to—we can't just look at right now. We got to look at what this is going to look like in 30 years." And so to be able to do that and to be able to have those conversations and start talking with people and even so that like where we're looking to go west right and to be also at the point where Saratoga Eagle Mountains saw like I could talk to them and say hey this isn't going to be good for you either and this is why and for them to be you know really disappointed because they wanted us with them but to say like no you're right. Like no we see it we see what's going to happen. Let's get let's do this once and get it right. So, I I love that kind of stuff. That's the best part of this.

Ryan: Well, and that's and that that's kind of why I want to talk about that, you know, for I mean, just because I like because I unfortunately what makes the news or what makes the things are the the contentious parts, right? You know, and and and I there's reasons why, I guess, right? But, but I like that behind the scenes, hey, there's a lot of people coming together, right? You know, doing things and and and there's definitely people who are mad and there's like you got all that stuff going on, too. But it's like, you know, I think when you had a lot of people going in with really good intentions. You know, trying to get it right for everybody. And that was pretty incredible to be a part of.

Ryan: Well, so how long have you been on city council for? Or sorry, planning commission, right?

Heather: So planning commission, I was two and a half years. I've been on city council for a year and a half.

Ryan: Okay. So, and tell me so tell me the difference, you know, just for anybody that doesn't know planning commission versus city council then.

Heather: So planning commission is appointed. You're appointed by the mayor and, you know, voted on by the city council to be in that position. You do not meet with the applicant. You don't talk about items before they come forward. And so everything's just done in that meeting. Um, city council is elected. So you campaign run, you get voted on to be in that position. And then you you are able to meet with with the developer, with staff, with you can talk one-on-one with other city council members. I can talk to the mayor. You just can't ever have like a voting body together. So, like, you know, I can't talk with two other city council members and say, "Hey, this is our vote." Let's team up here together.

And I I kind of like thought like coming to the city council and being new, I'm like, "Oh, they probably all talk and everybody knows how they're going to vote going in." You don't. You talk through things sometimes tough things but I think you get to the point where you kind of understand where people might be but there's a lot of times you're in a meeting and new information is presented and you're like oh I didn't even see it that way so yeah.

Ryan: Well and to your point actually that's what you said originally with what got you into it is hey I affected change here and this was before you were any kind of position of power right and you're just a resident at that time. And so so I guess to your point yeah those meetings do matter I guess right you know planning commission.

Heather Newell on Civic Service & Preserving Lehi's History