"We have a grave concern with this process," Ryan Mecham of Sandy-based Anderson Development warned the Governor's Geologic Hazards Working Group, which includes no one from the private sector. "You can't make me jump through X-Y-Z hoops just because you want to. That's an abuse of power."

But when Mecham challenged the scientific basis for cities and counties designating certain properties as "sensitive," Scott Carter, Layton's community and economic development director, fired back.

"I am the poor sucker that listens to the people as they leave their home" after a landslide, Carter said at Wednesday's task force meeting.

The developers, he added, are long gone. "Do they come back and want to help? No. Where they do run is to their attorney and to a cave. . . . They hold on to their dough and run."

Layton's Sunset Drive slide wiped out one home in 1998 and another soon will be relocated because of further earth movement. Not far away, the Heather Drive slide destroyed three homes in 2001 and forced owners to move three others.

A representative of a development company proposing to build homes on 70 acres just across the stream from the Heather Drive slide also attended Wednesday's meeting.

Mike Flood of Adams Property said he finds it easier when a city has clear, specific guidelines on how to address geotechnical hazards. But he objects to the notion that the developer must pay all the costs for geotechnical work.

In the case of the Layton project, he noted, his company may do mitigation work that benefits 40 or 50 other property owners, and they won't have to kick in a dime.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. formed the task force in 2006 after slides wiped out new homes in Mountain Green and Cedar Hills.

One of the group's chief draft recommendations is to upgrade the standards and training of geological engineers and geotechnical experts.

Francis Ashland, a state geologist and geological engineer, said Utah universities train people to look for oil and gold, but not to investigate landslides.

The University of Utah, he noted, has just resurrected its geological-engineering program, the only one in the state, and that may help.

The task force plans to create a model ordinance on geologic hazards for cities and counties.

Task force chairman Gary Christenson, the head of the Utah Geological Survey's geologic-hazards division, noted that after California adopted strict standards for grading, losses from hillside failures plunged by 90 percent. By following better practices, he said, developers could potentially build in areas too steep to consider at present.

But Mecham complains that some proposals seem not to have considered the costs to developers.

"Fewer and fewer people can afford to develop properties in Utah because cities are making it immensely difficult to get in the door," Mecham said. "You are impacting the marketplace . . . every time you come up with this concept of, 'We'll just pass it on to the developer.' "

Christenson said when the draft recommendations are finalized, they will be circulated among the development, real estate and geologic-consultant industries as well as among families who have lost their homes to landslides.

After taking public comment, the recommendations will go to the governor, possibly in the fall.

kmoulton@sltrib.com