This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"Decisions for the last 20 years were made through litigation and contention. There has to be a better way. … Everyone who's been shooting each other sat around a table and signed an agreement of guiding principles."

– Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, speaking about Mountain Accord last October.

Almost everybody, Mayor. 

All the good work — all the far-reaching efforts to bring a lasting peace to the over-loved Central Wasatch Mountains — is still under the cloud of litigation, and McAdams and his fellow public servants would be wise to wait for the courts before they reach further.

Mountain Accord was a four-year public/private effort to bring together stakeholders — ski resorts, watershed officials, backcountry skiers, and county and city governments — to resolve long-standing issues and develop a plan for the future of what is arguably Salt Lake County's most important natural asset. The Central Wasatch is a key source of water, recreation and economic activity, and a growing human impact puts all that at risk.

The negotiations were no doubt delicate at times, but it was still a government process, one that led to creation of the Central Wasatch Commission, an interlocal agency intended to be Salt Lake County's vehicle for managing the land for the next 50 years.

A group of private landowners filed suit challenging the Mountain Accord process, and Third District Judge Laura Scott ruled last week that the suit can proceed because the group's meetings fall under the Utah Open Meetings Act and all of its public-notice requirements. The mayors and other elected officials were acting in their public roles in the Mountain Accord process, and the fact that private entities also participated does not negate the need for following the law, the judge ruled.

That raises the question of whether the Central Wasatch Commission can carry on while the lawsuit advances. The commission's attorney believes it can, and he called the lawsuit "rooting around the weeds."

But a wide-ranging group of interests — from Friends of Alta to Physicians for a Healthy Environment to the League of Women Voters — has signed a letter asking that all the commission's work be put on hold until the lawsuit is resolved. Noteworthy among the letter's signers is the organization Save Our Canyons, a group that was actually part of the Mountain Accord negotiations in the first place and still very much supports the deal.

Yes. Move slowly on hiring staff for the Central Wasatch Commission. If this won't stand up to the full scrutiny of the law, it also won't last 50 years.