Case Summaries

R.O.A. General v. Salt Lake City

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...
December 19, 2022

Fuja v. Woodland Hills

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...
December 14, 2022

Tooele County v. Erda Community Association

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...
November 14, 2022

Salt Lake City v. Inland Port Authority

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...
June 29, 2022

Ogden City Plaza Inv. v. Ogden City Board of Zoning Adjustment

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 74 (Click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals held that a zoning board’s interpretation of its zoning ordinance prohibiting drive-in restaurants was incorrect. Ogden City Plaza Investors owns commercial property in the Central Business District (CBD) of Ogden City that featured a standalone building with a drive-through window that...
June 16, 2022

Cardiff Wales v. Washington County School District

Utah Supreme Court 2022 UT 19 (Click for text of opinion) The Utah Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals’ ruling that in order for an acquisition of property to be made under a “threat of eminent domain” for purposes of right of first refusal, the government entity must have specifically authorized the use of eminent domain by approving an...
May 26, 2022

South Weber City v. Cobblestone Resort

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 63 (Click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against the ongoing use of an owner’s property for short-term rentals in the city’s agricultural zone as not qualifying for a legal nonconforming use against recent ordinance changes.  Background: In 2019, South Weber adopted an ordinance regulating short-term rentals (STR),...
May 12, 2022

Huck v. Ken’s House LLC

Utah Court of Appeals 2022 UT App 64 (Click for full text of opinion) The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a boundary by acquiescence claim where the claimant did not produce clear and convincing evidence of each element of the claim.  In 2012, Mr. Huck bought a property in the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City that...
May 12, 2022

Northern Monticello Alliance v. San Juan County (NMA I)

Utah Supreme Court 2022 UT 10 (Click for full text) **Subsequent History: following remand from this case, the Utah Court of Appeals issued another opinion arising out of an appeal of the district court’s decision in this case. See, Northern Monticello Alliance v. San Juan County (NMA II). The Utah Supreme Court held that a third-party’s statutory right to appeal...
February 24, 2022

Lundahl Farms v. Nielsen

Utah Court of Appeals 2021 UT App 146 (Click for full text) The Utah Court of Appeals vacated the district court’s holding in a claim for boundary by acquiescence and remanded for further proceedings, concluding that the district court had made a number of mistakes in the fact finding process, inherently making its legal conclusions unsupportable, and making it impossible...
December 30, 2021