Rep. Mel Brown, R-Coalville, sponsored HB164 in response to criticism of the law he successfully pushed last year.
Garfield County officials protested when Ruby's Inn incorporated to form Bryce Canyon City. Later, residents howled when an Arizona developer attempted to create a town called Aspen, Utah, in Wasatch County.
"This is the long-awaited bill to replace my faux pas from last session," Brown said Tuesday. "I've tried very desperately to provide three things in this bill: self determination, constitutional rights and involvement of local government."
Meanwhile, a House committee Tuesday unanimously endorsed a similar bill, SB25, and amended it to make it retroactive to Jan. 1, essentially invalidating the petition to create Powder Mountain Town in Weber County.
Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, said the Legislature will likely be sued either way - by the developers who want to fall under the "faux pas" law or Weber County residents who are being forced into the new town without a vote.
House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, opposes making either incorporation bill retroactive, but Froerer said he hopes the amended SB25 will force a discussion of voter disenfranchisement on the House floor.
Under the present law, one person can petition for incorporation as long as he owns 50 percent of the land and at least 100 people live within the boundaries of the proposed municipality. The law says the petitioner will choose the mayor and town council until an election two years after a successful incorporation.
HB164 and SB25, however, require that such petitions have at least five sponsors and that together those people own less than 40 percent of the land within the proposed boundaries. It also requires that a majority of residents in the proposed town approve of the incorporation and that the mayor and council be elected.
Beyond Ruby's Inn and the failed Aspen, the 2007 law spawned incorporation petitions for the towns of Hideout and Independence in Wasatch County and Powder Mountain in Weber County.
Hideout and Independence were denied when residents withdrew, leaving the proposed towns short of the population requirement. Independence proponents last week submitted a new petition for incorporation under the 2007 law.
The Powder Mountain proposal is pending in Weber County, although the county clerk said last week the incorporation papers seemed to be in accordance with the law.
-- Tribune reporters Robert Gehrke and Kristen Moulton contributed to this report.
HB164
Would replace the small-town-incorporation law.
Next step: Goes to the Senate.
