A bill that would let residents of the Weber County town of Powder Mountain undo the controversial creation of the burg passed the House unanimously on Friday.

Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, sponsored the bill to allow an immediate vote to dissolve the town.

The Legislature passed a law in 2007 that allowed towns to incorporate without a vote of the residents and as a result, he said, 87 residents of Powder Mountain were swept up by developers looking to create a new town.

Those residents, Froerer said, are concerned about runaway development and skyrocketing property taxes, but Utah law requires a two-year waiting period before a vote can be taken to unincorporate.

The bill is moving parallel to negotiations between Froerer, Weber County and the development group to potentially drop the township effort.

Former House Speaker Greg Curtis, who is the lawyer for the Pronaia development group pushing incorporation, said the bill is a bad idea. The landowners invested considerable resources into the incorporation plans and it would be unfair to pull the rug out from under them and could set a bad precedent for future incorporation battles.

The bill passed the House and is headed to the Senate, where it died last session.