A frank and productive meeting regarding Powder Mountain was held in Salt Lake yesterday with the Lt. Governor Mr. Herbert and his staff including a representative from the Utah Attorney General's office. Our state representative Gage Froerer set up the meeting and was in attendance.
During the meeting is was conceded by all that HB466 was a poorly written law, but the Lt. Governor said we were in effect stuck with the "unintended consequences". We told him that it was difficult to accept that view since the incorporation has not been approved by anyone yet. Our group was before him to try to alter the scope and size of this physical "train wreck" that will have a disastrous effect on the entire Ogden Valley and any affected homeowners forced into this incoporation without due process.
Several Valley people made the point that the incorporation under HB466 could be viewed as unconstitutional since it abriged the rights of those forced into the town boundries by first, making them part of the town without their input and second, denial of any voting rights on the town leadership for an extended period since the largest property owner (Powder Mountain) has the right under HB466 to submit their handpicked names for town council and mayor.
The Lt. Governor stated that it was possible negotiations could resolve this issue. We assured him that there has been ongoing negotiations and the latest we heard from Gage Froerer is the price that Powder Mountain is asking to drop the incorporation, is to expand the initial 3700 units at Powder Mountain to 9000 units! (We heard this from Gage Froerer just before the meeting started yesterday) This is an astouding response to the attempted negotiations by Commissioner Dearden with Powder Mountain if that is true.
In the end, the Lt. Governor agreed that he and his staff would pursue the water, traffic safety issues, and density questions raised at the meeting with each Utah State department and the Weber County Commissioners involved to see if they could help in any way or if anything has been overlooked. He made it clear that he has no enforcement powers with the Weber County Commissioners or legal staff. He also agreed to contact the Powder Mountain petitioners to dicuss their point of view on this issue.
Your Ogden Valley representatives at the meeting.
