Mapleton landowner guilty of illegal plowing

MAPLETON — A Utah Valley man with a long-standing feud with the city over his property rights has been found guilty of three infractions involving his Maple Mountain land.

Wendell Gibby will be sentenced March 16 at 8 a.m.

Judge Dean F. Olsen ruled this week that Gibby, a physician, unlawfully graded his land in a sensitive environmental zone, graded it without a permit and graded a slope greater than 30 degrees, which is prohibited by city ordinance.

Olsen said that plowing represented grading, excavating and filling.

The city filed the charges in September 2002, alleging that Gibby wrongfully graded land on the property, which created a risk of flooding, erosion or landslide.

Gibby said he was merely plowing his field to plant crops for cattle feed. The ruling will be appealed to the 4th District Court, he said.

Gibby also decided to plow over the Bonneville Shoreline Trail that runs through his property after hikers continued to use it to cross his land. He said they were trespassing and destroying his fence and gate.

Whether the trail is a public easement is the subject of a civil court case that will be determined later this year. However, Gibby's attorney, Doug Finch, said the city was using the criminal case to force Gibby to capitulate on the civil case.

This week, the city filed a second set of similar infractions against Gibby, alleging he violated the same ordinances in 2004, Gibby said.

Gibby and his neighbor, Don Henrichsen, are fighting the city's insistence it is a public easement. They also will fight any attempts by the city to legally obtain the land through its eminent domain powers.

The decision on the infractions came three weeks after a marathon 19-hour trial, which City Manager Bob Bradshaw said was the longest in city history.

City officials are optimistic Gibby will comply with city ordinances regarding his land.

"I always have complied with city ordinances," Gibby said. "Agricultural crops in the field are an unrestricted agricultural use."

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com