Case Summaries

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 162 The Utah Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s ruling that associational standing is not available under LUDMA, though it upheld dismissal of the case because the party lacked statutory standing. The San Juan County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for tent camping on a 240-acre property in Upper Mill...

Utah Supreme Court 2024 UT 39 (click for full text of opinion)The Utah Supreme Court dismissed Summit County’s challenge to Hideout’s annexation of an area without petition under a provision in state law because the County lacked statutory standing and public interest standing did not apply.  For a brief period of 100 days during 2020, Utah law authorized a municipality...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 126 The Utah Court of Appeals concluded that a group of landowners lacked statutory standing to challenge Grantsville’s annexation of an area proposed to be included within the new city of Erda; however, the Court remanded to assess whether there was traditional standing to bring constitutional challenges.  After several property owners in the...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 88 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals ruled that a jury properly found that a landowner had not intended to convey water shares together when the land was sold. This case reiterates the important point that Utah law has long drawn a distinction between water rights and water...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT 17 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a landowner’s challenge to a city’s incorporation, holding that there was no private right of action to enforce the incorporation code’s requirements. After the City of Erda was incorporated, several Landowners within the newly incorporated boundaries challenged the...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 83 (May 31, 2024) (click for full text of opinion) In remanding the district court ’s dismissal of a property owner’s challenge of a rezone denial, the Utah Court of Appeals found that the district court misconstrued state law provisions that were applicable only to judicial review of administrative decisions, and not legislative...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 73 (click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a judgment establishing an implied easement in favor of commercial access across residential property. 440 North SF, LLC, purchased residential property in Provo that backs up to commercial property owned by Vista Heights Investments, LLC, and used as a diamond...

Utah Court of Appeals  2024 UT App 60 (click for full text of opinion)  The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a quiet title decision in favor of a landowner who sought to restrict access to their land against claims that a public road or prescriptive easement had been established. In 2016, S and W Hunting Ranch (S&W) purchased a property...

United States Supreme Court 601 U.S. ____ (2024) (click for full text of opinion) The United States Supreme Court held that its judicial test for the constitutionality of development exactions, known as the Nollan/Dolan rough proportionality test, applies to legislative exactions that result from an application of generally applicable ordinances to a development. George Sheetz, a property owner in California,...

Utah Court of Appeals 2024 UT App 53 (click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals held that a city’s appeal challenging a property owner’s easement to access a city street was rendered moot when the city later issued a permit for a curb cut on the property. Paul Bywater, a property owner in Brigham City, maintained access to...