A new lawsuit in Utah’s 7th District Court says 2024’s preliminary municipality law is unconstitutional.
The Moab-area nonprofits that filed it Feb. 10 are seeking to stop a controversial development and town along the Colorado River in its tracks.
Their lawsuit is focused on the future town of Echo Canyon, formerly Kane Creek, but it could have statewide effects.
“I think the stakes with this whole situation are pretty high,” said Laura Long, an organizer with plaintiff Kane Creek Development Watch. “It basically is going to determine whether local people still have voice over things like zoning and development decisions that are going to affect their communities and their roads and their infrastructure strain like water.”
If successful, the lawsuit may prevent Wasatch Back landowners from incorporating towns under the same part of Utah law.
The nonprofits Kane Creek Development Watch and Living Rivers brought the suit against Echo Canyon, its developer Craig Weston and the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office. They have yet to respond in court.
Right now, up to three property owners can join to create a “preliminary municipality” and appoint a board with land use authority and most of a town’s other rights and responsibilities.
Developers in unincorporated Summit County see the tool as a backstop for projects that otherwise might be unpopular or not get approved.
Dakota Pacific Real Estate has a pending incorporation petition in Kimball Junction; Ivory Homes applied for one in Browns Canyon but was turned down this year.
The plaintiffs in Grand County allege the law adopted in 2024 is a “private or special,” which is prohibited by the Utah Constitution. They say “there is reason to believe [the law] was custom-designed for” the Echo Canyon development, formerly called Kane Creek.
The lawsuit also claims the state Constitution allows only cities and towns to incorporate, not any other category of municipality.
Further, they claim Echo Canyon violates the federal and state constitutional rights to petition elected officials since preliminary municipalities are run by appointed, not elected, board members.
The plaintiffs’ last argument is a little more obscure.
It invokes the Utah Constitution’s ripper clause, which says the Legislature can’t give “special commissions, private companies or associations” the power to perform any municipal functions.
