Oakley is the latest Summit County town wondering if it could be sued by its own residents.
At issue are two permits Steve Smith is seeking for businesses at the mouth of the upper Weber Canyon.
City planning commissioners considered voting on the requests May 7, but delayed so the city attorney can review their options.
Some commissioners were worried about harming nearby neighbors who expressed concerns about traffic and noise. They also wondered if the residents might sue.
But city planner Stephanie Woolstenhulme thought some of the residents might be unaware that the events center and landscaping business are allowed by the area’s zoning.
“The moment for impact and change is not right now. The moment for impact and change is at the code, at the basis,” she said during the meeting.
In other words, if residents oppose a type of permitted business, it’s more effective to focus on redoing the zoning so they’re not allowed.
Smith is seeking conditional use permits — or CUPs — which lawyers sometimes describe as Utah’s attempt at a legal “compromise” between personal property rights and the concerns of neighboring properties.
“The issue with a conditional use permit, which sometimes is a little less understood by members of the public, is that a conditional use permit in the state of Utah, it's essentially, it's a use-by-right, it's already been approved. It's a permissible land use,” Summit County Community Development Director Peter Barnes said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” last week.
That means if the project complies with the law it gets approved, and governments can only impose conditions to mitigate negative impacts that could be “reasonably anticipated.”
Oakley’s debate over CUPs is nearly identical to a debate in Francis to the south.
In Francis, residents protested two CUPs for two hotels near the center of town.
Before a March vote to greenlight a Best Western Plus, one councilmember said she felt like the board was choosing who they wanted to sue them — the developer or the residents. The residents did appeal the hotel approval in a lawsuit filed one month later.
Oakley’s planning commission has the final word on CUPs, whereas Francis’ planning commission makes a recommendation for the city council to decide.
Francis is considering revising that process following the hotel controversy.
