In an advisory opinion issued this week, the ombudsman office said Ogden did not have a "compelling, countervailing public interest"- as required by Utah law - when the City Council froze all construction activity in the Ogden River Project area for six months.

The council voted for the moratorium on Jan. 2, but backdated the effective date to Dec. 19.

At the time, Ogden planners argued the temporary land-use ordinance, or moratorium, was necessary so the city could prepare a mixed-use ordinance for the 60-acre redevelopment project.

"Ogden's findings cite a preference for one land use over another as justification for the temporary ordinance, and suggest that the matter is urgent, although the river-project plan, which is the basis for the temporary ordinance, was adopted 4 1/2 years ago," the opinion said.

It was signed by Brent Bateman, one of the attorneys in Utah's Office of Property Rights Ombudsman. Bateman will soon replace Craig Call as the lead state ombudsman.

The co-owner of the Ogden River Inn, Michael Moyal, who had requested the opinion, said Wednesday that he's hopeful the city will now work with him and his partner so they can reopen a long-closed restaurant.

City Attorney Gary Williams could not be reached for comment, but Council Chairman Jesse Garcia said he expects city officials will work with Moyal to resolve the issue.

Call said Wednesday that the opinion is merely advisory, but could result in Moyal winning attorney's fees if he were to successfully sue - and if the judge concurred with the state ombudsman's opinion.

"I don't want to sue. I just want to open the restaurant," Moyal said.

Moyal and his partner, Balwinder Singh Johal, purchased the inn on Washington Boulevard last November and want to create an Indian restaurant.

Eventually, they would like to tear down the hotel and restaurant and build new structures with restaurants, shops and loft condominiums - similar to others planned in the river project.

Moyal has argued that the city's moratorium was designed specifically to block their restaurant.

Lower-level city planning officials were initially helpful when Moyal began seeking approval for the restaurant last fall, but when upper-level administrators heard of his plans, Moyal was told that the hotel and restaurant should be demolished rather than remodeled, he has said.

By mid-December, he was told his proposal would be denied because the city had a pending mixed-use ordinance that would apply to his property. In the advisory opinion, the property-ombudsman office said that because the moratorium was illegal, the pending ordinance was not in effect. The opinion also noted that Ogden city planners were unable to give the ombudsman copies of the ordinance.

"This would lead us to conclude that in January and February of this year, there was also no new, second 'pending ordinance' that was under formal consideration in a form that would 'prohibit approval of the application as submitted' " in December, the opinion said.

kmoulton@sltrib.com