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.

And while Quinn disagreed with Bluffdale United's request to intervene in the lawsuit, he agreed that he should not approve the settlement.

"I have consistently ruled in this case that the case is a disconnection action and not a review of Bluffdale's city planning and zoning decisions," he wrote. The proposed consent decree, he wrote, is at its core a zoning decision.

But City Attorney Dale Gardiner said he believes the decision was based on the judge's reluctance to take on a political issue, and he blamed the politicizing of it on Bluffdale United.

"I think the court would have entered the consent decree if it hadn't been opposed by Bluffdale United," he said.

He said in his 29 years as an attorney he has never had a proposed settlement agreement denied by a judge. Typically, when both sides of a dispute agree on a solution, the judge gives his OK.

Now the case has been fast-tracked, with a trial conceivably starting as soon as February.

Gardiner said he doesn't hold out hope for any new rounds of negotiations between the developers and the new city government: "As a practical matter, anything is possible. But I don't see the incentive for the developers to do so."

It is now up to the current council and the newly elected council to work together to work out how the city will proceed, Gardiner said.

"The new regime and the old regime are going to have to get together and decide how they want to handle this lawsuit, so the judge's decision does make the new mayor and the old mayor and the new council and the old City Council try to get together and come up with a common strategy," he said. "Whether they'll be able to do that I don't know."

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com