Wednesday evening’s virtual public hearing in Hideout to discuss the proposed Richardson Flat annexation was derailed by technical difficulties.
Over 125 people were on Wednesday’s Zoom call with more in waiting before Hideout officials ultimately decided to reschedule the public hearing.
The meeting was originally scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. but confusion over an incorrect Zoom link caused the public hearing to start more than 30 minutes late. When the meeting finally did start, the large number of people who wanted to join caused a number of participants to either be dropped from the meeting or not allowed to participate at all.
After initial discussion amongst the councilors to potentially let the members of the public who were able to join the call speak in an informal capacity, town lawyer Daniel Dansie advised the meeting be rescheduled.
Hideout officials apologized to the members of the public who were on the call and explained that although the town had recently upgraded its Zoom account to accommodate up to 500 participants, it wasn’t immune from technical difficulties.
The meeting was scheduled to be an informational hearing regarding the town’s controversial plan to annex the 655-acre Richardson Flat area of Summit County. Hideout hopes to build a large commercial development area on the land, known as “North Park.”
Summit County sued Hideout over its move to annex the land on July 31 and was granted a temporary restraining order on Aug. 4, barring Hideout from taking any further action.
A hearing on the lawsuit in Utah’s 4th District Court took place on Aug. 10 and a decision by Judge Jennifer A. Brown to either dismiss the restraining order or convert it into a preliminary injunction is expected to be handed down at 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 14.
The Utah Open Meetings Act requires 24-hour notice before any official government meeting takes place. Hideout sent out a notification at 11am Thursday morning. The rescheduled meeting will take place on Friday, August 14th at 12 noon via Zoom.
