The Ombudsman was asked tasked with two issues:
1) Is a custom butchering and meat packing business a prohibited use in the county's AV-3 Zone? and
2) Does the Weber County code authorize the planning staff to serve as the land use authority in this matter?
Click here to read the document: Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman Opinion
The eleven page document is an interesting read while sipping your cappuccino during commercials of X-Factor, but it boils down to the issue of who is authorized under county ordinances to decide if a use is permitted: planning staff or the planning commission.
We think the planning department should always err on the conservative side by sending any questionable use to the planning commission for review, and the ombudsman apparently agrees.
The Ombudsman concludes:
The County Ordinance language, as it presently stands, prohibits certain agricultural industry or business in the AV-3 Zone. The business undertaken by the landowners, guided hunting with cutting and processing wild elk off the lot, is inescapably of that type and prohibited in that zone.It now appears that the ball is in the County's court.
