Creation of 2 towns is unlikely

HEBER — A Wednesday meeting here over the incorporation of two new towns was colored by earnest requests from developers, adamant opposition by a room full of opponents and talk of unfairness and wrongdoing on the part of elected officials.

The Wasatch County Council voted 4-3 to let a group of apartment residents out of the boundaries of the proposed town of Hideout, thereby killing its incorporation.

It also voted 6-1 to table the incorporation of the proposed town of Independence, after voting to let eight properties in the area out of the town. The vote was tabled until next Wednesday to give the county time to ask the state to redo its population count for the town.

Following the meeting, Wasatch County Attorney Thomas Low told the Deseret Morning News that he met last week with Utah Speaker of the House Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, and lobbyists from Hideout and the Utah Association of Counties concerning Hideout's annexation. Low was asked to tell the council not to delay the town's incorporation to ensure it wouldn't be stopped by a bill pending in the House that would change incorporation law, he said.

The pending bill would fix problems created by a last-minute bill passed by the 2007 Legislature that has allowed single-property owners to create towns with little public support. It also would make impossible the incorporations of Hideout and Independence, as well as the Weber County town based around Powder Mountain.

Jodi Hoffman, an attorney for the Independence incorporation, said she helped draft the controversial 2007 bill in her role as lobbyist for the Utah League of Cities and Towns. She also said the league doesn't think her representing Independence is a conflict of interest because, in part, the league never voted to support the 2007 bill. Also, Hoffman said she didn't meet with the Independence petitioners until months after the bill was signed into law.

Residents who knew of the meeting among Curtis, Hideout officials and Low were perturbed at Wednesday's meeting.

"He came here and intimidated our county attorney," said Wasatch resident Julia Connery. "It makes us nervous."

Curtis did not return phone calls from the Deseret Morning News regarding the issue.

Low forwarded Curtis' request to the council prior to Wednesday's meeting but said they agreed they were neither delaying nor rushing the incorporations based on anything happening in the Legislature.

Meanwhile, no action has been taken on the bill in question.

Hideout petitioner Rich Sprung told the Deseret Morning News he had never heard of the meeting and had no part in it. He has meticulously followed every part of the incorporation law, he said.