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Show Volume XVII Issue XXIV The Ogden Valley news Page June 1, 2010 Guest Commentaries A Bad Deal for Ogden Valley By Kimbal Wheatley This past year has been an active one in the saga of Powderville, and I have been delinquent in posting this new chapter (Act IV), but we have all been waiting on a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Weber County which is what Act IV is all about. Here is the story. The Utah Supreme Court has agreed to hear the County and Powderville residents’ case concerning HB466 (the law that created this mess). Valley residents held a successful rally to raise funds to help the residents with court costs and the lawsuit continues. The old PERPS (PERPS is my name for the perpetrators of this travesty) have been replaced by a new crop who continue to harass the residents and the county with the threat of forming Powderville town. Our elected representatives put up a good fight in the 2010 legislature. Gage Froerer stewarded a bill through the House and Alan Christensen fought for it in the Senate. But the forces of corruption are powerful at the capitol, and our representatives were honest with us in the last week of the legislature . . . , “If you don’t have $80,000 to spread around down here this next week, we lose.” If Froerer’s bill should ever get to the Senate floor, it could well pass and the whole problem caused by HB466 would disappear. That is, the PERPS will be forced to pursue their development of Powder Mountain under the state and county laws everyone else abides by. What went on in the legislature is a long story and definitely a disturbing one. For example, I witnessed Stuart Adams, some kind of stud in the Senate, put unbelievable pressure on Commissioner Craig Dearden to give the PERPS whatever they want; he wanted a deal and he wanted it NOW! But it turns out, what they wanted was illegal, so Adams called on Greg Curtis (last year’s disgraced Speaker of the House and this year’s head lobbyist for the PERPs) to write and push a bill to make what they wanted legal for just this one case. Thankfully, this was defeated by our alert representatives. Finally, the shenanigans at the legislature culminated in a standoff when Senate President Waddoups blocked Froerer’s bill and put it into a kind of suspension. Then he told the County and PERPS to make a deal; if he hears the County did not negotiate in good faith, the Froerer bill will never see the light of day . . . ever. If he hears the PERPS didn’t, he says he will allow Froerer’s bill to get a fair hearing in the Senate—maybe even in the summer session. So, from early March until last week, the County and PERPS apparently worked together to create a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) that we could all live with . . . which is where we are today. While all this was going on, the PERPS continued to intimidate the Powderville residents with threats of the living hell they will experience if the County doesn’t give them what they want. (i.e., the Supreme Court will let them create the town, the town will be bankrupt when it begins, the mayor and town council will be puppets of the PERPS, any interference from the residents will land them in court, etc). All of these forces and deals will play out at the County Commission hearing June 1 when the MOU gets a public hearing. If you haven’t read it, you should. It will give you a glimpse of what “fair” and “good faith” mean to the PERPS. If the County actually agrees this is a good deal for the Valley, I am extremely disappointed in my County government and I think you will agree. Here are the highlights of the MOU, but you can read it yourself on the county website: • The PERPS get all the density for Powder Mountain Resort they have ever asked for (their property is zoned for 1218 units; they now demand well over 3000 units). • The PERPS get whatever density they want for Eden Heights (this is new; Eden Heights consists of 1,500 acres located on the foothills adjacent to existing homes around Wolf Creek at the bottom of Powder Mountain). • The PERPS get to continue development no matter what kind of problems we, or they, encounter with high volumes of traffic on SR158. • The PERPS get to pick and choose which county building and planning ordinances they want to follow. • The PERPS get to stop or start the Supreme Court lawsuit—whatever suits them. • The PERPS get at least one 18-hole golf course— no matter what the issues may be. • The PERPS get unlimited commercial development. • The PERPS can back out of the MOU if they want to; the County can’t back out, no matter what! In exchange for these unprecedented entitlements, the PERPS offer some unspecified “other good and valuable consideration,” plus: • The PERPS will release the hostages of Powderville. • The PERPS will give the County some chump change to make their capitulation easier to swallow ($1.35 million spread over 20-30 years). • The PERPS promise to try to mitigate the impact of their oversized development, and will also attempt to keep the construction traffic safe. • The PERPS will put 238 acres of steep hillside into open space. We are all tired of this, but none more than the would-be residents of Powderville, who just want the nightmare to go away even if it means the County makes a deal with the PERPS. However, even they must be shocked by the outcome of the “negotiations” and the resulting MOU. It is extremely onesided. It is binding for the County, but not for the PERPS. Throwing Eden Heights into the deal will destroy the integrity of Valley planning and zoning processes, as well as invite endless lawsuits about density and entitlements, etc. Make no mistake about it, the County is being coerced into making a bad deal for the Valley. If you care about the Valley, if you care about the General Plan, if you care about your property value, or if you care about fairness, please attend the hearing June 1 at 6:00 p.m. and voice your opinion, or just attend to indicate to the Commissioners how important this is. Senate President Waddoups needs to know about what we think of the “good faith negotiation” style of the PERPS too. If we don’t show up at the hearing, the bad guys could well win this round. If we do, the bad guys may win anyway, but the County Commissioners and Senate President will have to look us in the eye as they sell out the Valley. An Open Letter to the Citizens of Ogden Valley Thank you, citizens of Ogden Valley. You are truly the greatest neighbors that people could have, and we appreciate all of your time, money, and moral support in our struggle to avoid being forced into becoming an incorporated municipality. Because there is a fair amount of misunderstanding in the community about the nature and probable outcome of our lawsuit, we want to clarify the facts. Both the incorporation petition sponsors and we, as a group of citizens residing in the proposed town, have sued the Weber County Commission. There are two parts to the citizens’ lawsuit, a constitutional challenge and a challenge to the interpretation of the law. In September 2009, the 2nd District Court ruled in favor of the incorporation petition sponsors. All parties challenged some portion of that ruling. The Utah Supreme Court has accepted the appeal of the case, and briefs have been exchanged. A date for oral arguments has not yet been set. Our constitutional case challenges the law based on HB466 (2007), which allowed for municipal incorporations by large landowners. The challenge is based on the Utah Constitution, Article 1 Section 2 (“All political power is inherent in the people…”), and Article 6 Section 28 (“The legislature shall not delegate to any special commission, private corporation or association, any power…to perform any municipal function.”). We have known from the outset that the chance of success based on the constitutional challenge is limited, since there is a very high standard for such challenges and the courts rarely rule a law unconstitutional if it can be interpreted in a way that allows the law to stand. Because of the difficulty in “winning” a constitutional case, our attorney has also argued for a more favorable interpretation of the law. That argument has to do with the election (vs. appointment by the Weber County Commission or selection by the petition sponsors) of town officers. If we or Weber County “win” on our statutory arguments, there WILL be a Powder Mountain Town; it’s just a matter of who will select the original mayor and town council. And if we “lose” on our statutory arguments, there WILL be a Powder Mountain Town, with the petition sponsors (developers) selecting the mayor and council. Some who are not party to the lawsuit have argued that if we lose in the Utah courts, we should file a constitutional challenge in federal courts. Not only is the cost of such action prohibitive (the lowest estimate we have heard is $150,000), but we have been advised that, based on recent rulings in our federal circuit court, such an appeal has little chance of success. Our original and continuing intent in pursuing this lawsuit was “No Town.” If we are forced to have a town, we should at least elect our own leaders. Unless our constitutional challenge in the Utah courts is successful, all roads lead to the creation of a town. So what has the lawsuit “bought” Ogden Valley? First, it has bought time. Without it, the town would have been incorporated in 2008 with the petition sponsors’ hand-picked mayor and town council, and the 20,000+ acres within the town would have long since been rezoned. Over the past two years, the investors on the project have become disenchanted with the leadership that filed the town incorporation petition. The managing partner of the development has changed, we believe for the better. The current group is willing to discuss rather than just dictate. As importantly, because of the continuing uncertainty the lawsuit creates, it has brought the new managers to the table with a compromise solution. We believe that the MOU being considered by the Weber County Commission on June 1 presents an opportunity for a reasonable compromise to be reached. If agreed upon, it will accomplish the purpose of the lawsuit (“No Town”), and preserve the public input and oversight process in Weber County for both the original rezone area (Powder Mountain), the foothill area (Eden Heights), and the remainder of the incorporation area. We encourage residents of Ogden Valley to study the MOU for themselves rather than accepting the interpretations of others who may have their own agendas. Whatever your position, we encourage each of you to contact the county commissioners with your questions, and to let your opinion be known to those we have elected to represent us. If you can’t attend the public hearing on June 1, please call, write, or e-mail your Weber County Commissioners. With sincere thanks, The Citizen Plaintiffs in the Powder Mountain Town lawsuit: Dan VanZeben Darla Longhurst-VanZeben taylor Satterthwaite Jim Halay Deja Mitchell Kathy Dowell Suzanne Amann, Eden Inspirational Thought “Once we roared like lions for liberty. Now we bleat for security. the solution for America’s problems is not in terms of big government, but it is in big men over whom nobody stands.” -- Norman Vincent Peale June 26 Anna Wilson/Super Crescent Band American Songbook Critically acclaimed jazz artist and songwriter, Anna Wilson has shared billings with Josh Grobin and Al Jarreau. $20/carload July 10 July 24 August 7 August 21 September 4 Utah Symphony Eric Heatherly Jon Schmidt $40/ carload $20/ carload $20/ carload Classic Rock All Stars $20/ carload The Soulistics The $20/ carload Pops Rock New Age Rock Soul Classics First Annual Music Festival August 7th and 8th No s ket ble! c i T la vai A w at Snowbasin F E AT U R I N G Dwight Yoakam and other top-name performers The two-day festival will showcase an array of food, beer gardens, activities, and beautiful scenery! For tickets and more info: www.snowbasin.com |