Just when Bluffdale city officials and developers thought they had reached a deal that would prevent 4,000 acres from leaving the city, a judge has nixed their agreement.

Third District Judge Anthony Quinn denied the proposed settlement agreement in the disconnection lawsuit brought by developers South Farm and Bluffdale Mountain Homes against the city, saying he was being asked to step into a political debate and make a planning and zoning decision outside the realm of the lawsuit.

"Courts generally avoid injecting themselves into political controversies," Quinn wrote in his order. "In this case, the proposed consent decree asks that I supplant the political process with respect to issues that are not even raised by the pleadings before me." And in the wake of this week's election shake-up, where the mayor was replaced by an anti-development candidate and two allied candidates won City Council seats, it looks like negotiations are over and the disconnection will go to trial.

"For us, we've worked on trying to work a plan with Bluffdale for 10 years now and finally came to an agreement, holding off on our disconnect to try and work it out yet once again," developer Jim Sorenson said. "We really don't have any choice at this point in time but to move forward with the disconnect now."

Speaking of the new mayor and council members, he said, "We really don't see this as a group that's interested in compromise."

The developers own land in southwestern Bluffdale, a rural chunk known as Area 4 that makes up about 40 percent of the city's land area. For years, the city and the developers have been haggling over plans for an extension of the Rosecrest development next door in Herriman.

The developers decided to seek disconnection — with the possibility of later annexing into Herriman's boundaries — after a December 2003 City Council decision that denied their application for a zoning change.

Since then, continued negotiations resulted in the city's creation of the so-called special development plan, a zoning category that would have allowed the city to deal with the land as a large parcel and begin negotiating the development specifics. But residents began a petition drive to put the SDP before a citywide vote, forming a group called Bluffdale United.

It was Bluffdale United that supported Claudia Anderson and council candidates Nancy Lord and Bill Maxwell, all of whom were elected Tuesday. It was also Bluffdale United that showed up in court late last month objecting to the proposed settlement.

The settlement, which was approved Oct. 25 by a 4-1 City Council vote, included two consent decrees that laid out specific agreements on the proposed development itself. Bluffdale United saw the agreement as a way to sidestep their referendum, which had garnered enough signatures to be placed on an upcoming ballot, and argued that the city and the developers were asking the court to approve a zoning decision that had not gone through the normal public process.