Current Utah law requires there to be 50 registered voters within a proposed town’s boundaries to decide whether it will incorporate.
But this November, 47 voters will decide whether West Hills, near Kamas, becomes the newest town in Summit County.
Attorney Janet Conway said that’s because Utah incorporation laws change nearly every year. West Hills’ incorporation process is being governed under a previous version of the law.
Conway is representing 10 landowners that don’t want the town and filed a lawsuit to block it May 13. On KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” she broke down their main arguments, which focus on state constitutional law.
“In Utah, we have a state constitutional provision. It's called ‘uniform operation of laws,’” Conway said. “It sounds like equal protection, but equal protection has evolved and is designed oftentimes to protect minority groups, people that are already being oppressed. Uniform operation of laws is more of an even playing field.”
One of the lawsuit’s main allegations is that the playing field isn’t even. The rules allow the town sponsor to act without requiring the Utah Lt. Governor’s office to keep landowners in the loop.
Some of the plaintiffs say they weren’t notified when they were included in revised versions of West Hills’ boundaries.
Earlier iterations of Utah law didn’t require anybody to be notified, according to Conway, but that raised due process concerns. Now, everyone is notified when they’re included in the first version of town boundaries.
But those boundaries can be redrawn, and in this case, that’s happened twice.
“This has then been morphed into this current form that's governing West Hills: that a sponsor — once somebody excludes property from the original map — a sponsor can then go and add new properties, and those owners don't have the rights that the original owners have,” Conway said. “And that's where it's running afoul.”
Separately, the lawsuit argues the town sponsor was able to draw subsequent boundaries to exclude people he knew would vote against the town in November.
Town sponsor Derek Anderson did not respond to a request for comment May 23.
Anderson and the lawsuit’s other defendants — the Utah Legislature and the lieutenant governor’s office — must respond to the allegations by June 13.
There are West Hills supporters who say they’ve been stifled by county zoning and want to encourage “modest new growth” with local representation.
Opponents generally don’t want development and are concerned about the area’s rural character changing. Some of them formed the Kamas Valley Preservation Association, which is campaigning against West Hills before the November vote.
KVPA won the support of Kamas City when the council passed an ordinance opposing West Hills in April. On May 2, attorneys for pro-incorporation landowners sent a cease-and-desist letter to the city calling on the council to rescind the ordinance or face a lawsuit.
A similar letter was also sent to Summit County May 9, putting the county government on notice for a lawsuit.
They say officials who’ve raised concerns about creating West Hills haven’t been neutral and argue Utah law says they should be neutral.
Neither Kamas nor Summit County had been sued as of May 23.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
