Mapleton landowner facing a judge — again

MAPLETON — A Maple Mountain landowner will be back in court today trying to convince a judge that his land is private and that Mapleton city is not entitled to an easement it wants to complete a link for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

Wendell Gibby — who says he has spent $45,000 to date on legal fees — is facing three criminal infractions that accuse him of grading land in an environmentally critical zone, grading land with a slope greater than 30 percent and grading without a permit. The infractions carry fines totaling $750.

The charges stem from Gibby's attempts to prevent public access across the 60-acre plot abutting national forest land that he purchased in 1993. It is the last link needed to complete the trail in the Mapleton area, according to city officials.

The city has spent $30,000 prosecuting the case in which it won guilty verdicts in Lindon Municipal Court last July. The verdicts were later vacated on appeal by a 4th District Court judge who ruled the Lindon court lacked jurisdiction in the case. Now it will be up to a Mapleton Justice Court Judge Dean F. Olsen to hear the case. Gibby will also face civil proceedings this summer.

Gibby and the city have been at odds over access across his property for years. He says his private property rights prevail over city claims that the land includes a public easement for the trail. When Gibby blocked the trail with no trespassing signs, a fence and a gate, hikers destroyed them.

"(Gibby) plowed it several times and planted a field of sunflowers," City Manager Bob Bradshaw said. "He completely obliterated the trail."

Gibby's attorney, Doug Finch, said the city is using the criminal case as leverage to force Gibby to capitulate on the civil case so the city can get a trail easement across the land.

Bradshaw said the city regrets having to spend thousands of dollars prosecuting citations worth a few hundred dollars, "but we have to enforce the law." He said city leaders haven't reached a position where they would "take a different view" at this point.

Finch questions whether the city is applying the law equally. He said Gibby's neighbors have been allowed to plow their land without any interference from the city.

Gibby maintains his property is agricultural land and doesn't require a permit for plowing.