This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Dean Sellers didn't lobby for Utah House Bill 466, the Let-Developers-Do-As-they-Darn-Well-Please Act of 2007. He says he was just "in the right place at the right time."
Sellers is a real estate developer. For 30-odd years he facilitated the development of the Arizona desert. Now he's moved to the Wasatch Back and amassed 5,700 ripe-for-plunder acres of aspen forest and pasture near the mouth of Daniels Canyon in Wasatch County. "A big, magnificent piece of raw beauty," he calls it.
Ski slopes. Hotels. Luxury homes. Shopping. A golf course. Sellers, if he can acquire enough water, has big plans for his land.
Before HB466 became law, Sellers would have had to deal with various local ordinances and regulations, and the boards and commissions that have a say in who builds what where when and how - local officials who are elected and appointed to balance the rights of landowners with the interests of the public at-large.
But the Legislature tipped the balance, and gave Sellers, and the rash of developers sure to come, control of their own destiny.
HB466 changed the rules for forming towns. Previously, county governments had the right to reject incorporation petitions for contiguous tracts with 100 to 1,000 year-round residents. But now, if the signers of the incorporation petition own land amounting to more than one-third of the tract's property value, the county's hands are tied.
So Sellers talked to his new neighbors, drew boundaries on a map, and filed for incorporation of a new town - Aspen, Utah. As soon as the state attorney general signs off, Utah will have its 245th municipality. And as the primary landowner, Sellers will choose the members of the first town council, and dictate the way that the town is developed.
Lawmakers say the "property rights" legislation was not intended to create company towns. If that's the case, it's a law of unintended consequences. Unless the law is changed, it will perpetuate, and accelerate, the rape of the Wasatch Mountains and other pristine places and open spaces in Utah.
Developers will jump at the chance to avoid jumping through hoops, with minimal interference from government not of their own making.
Think of it this way. Sellers is Ben Cartwright and Aspen is the Ponderosa. Now he's going to appoint Hoss, Little Joe and Hop Sing to the town council, and run the town like Ben ran the ranch. He'll make all the decisions. And Virginia City be damned.