Case Summaries

Utah Court of Appeals 2023 UT App 94 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the County’s denial of a homeowner’s requested special exception to ridgeline disturbance limits to build an additional accessory building on the same lot as his residence.  The county’s hillside stewardship zone, applicable to the property, provides a site grading provision...

Utah Court of Appeals 2023 UT App 89 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the City’s denial of a subdivision plat amendment to convert a private driveway to a public cul-de-sac with a non-public emergency access to proposed development in a neighboring city. Blue Bison owns the Summit Pointe Subdivision located in Alpine City,...

Supreme Court of the United States 598 U.S. ____ (2023) (May 25, 2023) (click for full text of opinion) The U.S. Supreme Court held that a claim under the Takings Clause had been presented where a Minnesota county seized a condo to sell for unpaid real estate taxes and retained the excess value over the owed tax debt for itself.  ...

Utah Supreme Court 2023 UT 9 (click for full text of opinion) May 18, 2023 *Prior history, Utah Stream Access Coalition v. VR Acquisitions (USAC I), 2019 UT 7 The Utah Supreme Court definitively settled a longstanding dispute regarding public access to riverbeds by determining that there is no constitutional protection for the public’s right to touch privately owned streambeds...

Utah Supreme Court 2023 UT 2 (Click for text of opinion) The Utah Supreme Court reversed a district court determination that Pleasant Grove City’s Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) was an illegal tax, concluding that its purpose qualified it as a service fee, but remanded to determine whether the fee was reasonable.  To address deteriorating roads, Pleasant Grove City adopted an...

Utah Court of Appeals 2023 UT App 18 (click for full text of opinion) After several appeals on procedural issues and on remand from the Utah Supreme Court in NMA I, The Utah Court of Appeals held that the initial Planning Commission decision not to revoke a conditional use permit was arbitrary and capricious because it made no written findings,...

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 141 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals vacated a district court’s judgment for inverse condemnation in favor of a billboard owner whose relocation request was denied by the city, and remanded the case for further proceedings.  R.O.A. General is the successor to Outfront Media LLC, formerly known as...

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 140 (click here for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals held that a city’s inaction to enforce a zoning violation is not itself a separate land use “decision” that can be appealed. Where the appeal window on a land use decision issuing a building permit had closed, noncompliance with the...

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 123 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals ruled for the dismissal of a community association’s judicial petition for review of a county’s administrative land use decision. The Court of Appeals held that the association had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies where the association itself had not filed...

Utah Supreme Court 2022 UT 27 (Click for full text of opinion) The Utah Supreme Court held that certain zoning provisions of the Utah Inland Port Authority Act were not unconstitutional.  In 2018, the state legislature enacted the Utah Inland Port Authority Act to create an inland port in Utah, overseen by the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA), a newly...