Years of legal wrangling over Richardson Flat — wrangling that appears far from being settled — started with a seemingly innocuous amendment introduced the night before the Utah Legislature concluded its 2020 general session.
The amended bill allowed municipalities to annex land in a different county without that county’s consent, discarding long-established precedent and paving the way for Hideout to attempt to annex Richardson Flat. That started a multi-year, ongoing legal battle over whether and how Park City’s eastern entryway would be developed.
On the eve of the 2022 general session, Summit County Chief Deputy Civil Attorney David Thomas told the county’s representatives at the Statehouse that the same crew was at it again.
“What you legislators don't know is that the same group that did the first thing, in terms of annexation, have done it twice more — amending existing bills to help their ends in terms of their specific development,” he said.
Thomas, who didn’t name the members of the group, was speaking at a legislative meet-and-greet Summit County hosted last week. His was one of several appeals from county officials for state-level support, many of which focused on transportation, transit and traffic-related projects.
Most of the county’s representatives spoke at the meeting, including Sen. Ron Winterton and Reps. Kera Birkeland, Brian King and Mike Kohler.
Thomas asked the state officials to be mindful of bills that pertain to three specific areas: annexations, conservation easements, and Sheriff’s sales/foreclosures.
“We would simply ask that if those kind of bills come up, and you read them and you don't understand what they're trying to accomplish, that perhaps you could give us call, so that we can decipher if, in fact, someone's trying to come in and change the law out from under us again,” he said.
Thomas said the county has heard that the same group that aided Hideout’s annexation attempt may be targeting the conservation easement that Park City holds for much of Richardson Flat. That easement significantly limits development rights on the land —580 acres of which were recently sold at a Sheriff’s sale.
“We have heard through the grapevine that the same players we've been dealing with are boasting that they're going to go to the Legislature in this legislative session and attempt to unravel that conservation easement,” he said. “We don't exactly know how they would be able to do that, but we're concerned because the same group, they've done it three times already.”
Thomas said the group has not been transparent with their legislation in the past. He said their new legislative efforts would likely involve amending an existing bill with language that seems vague but targets one of those three issues.
He asked legislators to be aware that “chatter is out there” that there would be an attempt to find a “legislative fix” to recent court rulings that have hindered the development of Richardson Flat.
Thomas is a former state senator himself, and the highest-ranking attorney on the civil side of the county’s operations under County Attorney Margaret Olson.
Summit County has for years relied on former deputy county attorney Jami Brackin as a liaison to the statehouse, but she now works in St. George. And as of Tuesday, the county did not have a lobbyist under contract, though it’s working to secure one.
County Manager Tom Fisher said the county’s lobbying efforts would expand this year to possibly include hiring a federal lobbyist to work on public lands issues.
Winterton, a Republican from Roosevelt whose senate district covers a large swath of Summit County, including Park City, said he wanted to make sure conservation easements are protected. But he noted the large number of bills that legislators are asked to review.
“You guys might know of a bill coming at you sooner than we do,” Winterton said. “Personally, as a legislator, I see the bills that come to my committees. The ones that come to the floor, I make sure I read all of those before we have discussions. But out of, you know, the 1,500 bills that will be filed, I'll only read probably around 800 of them. And I never see them unless somebody brings it to my attention and then I can look at it.”
The legislative session is scheduled to run from Jan. 18 to March 4. More information, including bill-tracking tools and contact information for representatives, can be found at le.utah.gov.
