The public body created to guide development in the Wasatch Mountains should immediately halt its work until a court case challenging the Mountain Accord wraps up, an attorney warned Monday.
The letter from Will Fontenot is the latest challenge to the Central Wasatch Commission, the public entity formed to enact policies concerning the mountains following years of work to create the framework, known as the Mountain Accord.
Fontenot represents a group of canyon landowners challenging the Mountain Accord's operation was outside the bounds of the state's Open and Public Meetings Act. The attorney warned that the Central Wasatch Commission (CWC) should not make any decisions until the Mountain Accord challenge is complete.
"My clients strongly suggest that those involved with the Central Wasatch Commission immediately suspend any further CWC development, actions, or commitments until the present Mountain Accord lawsuit is resolved to avoid being in violation of the 'no-litigation' provision," Fontenot wrote.
He said the commission was founded on the assumption that none of the entities was involved in litigation when it was founded, and that the ongoing lawsuit invalidates the agreement.
The letter came a week after 3rd District Court Judge Laura Scott ruled the Mountain Accord was a public entity that was subject to the open meeting law. That ruling rejected Salt Lake County attorneys argument that the law didn't cover the Mountain Accord because it involved some private entities.
Fontenot's warning didn't halt the inaugural meeting Monday though recent scrutiny appeared to have an impact.
Fred Finlinson, an attorney for the CWC, said the group would move forward despite the letter, and that the group's challenges amounted to "rooting around in the weeds."
"The main focus needs to be on doing what we can to make sure we don't destroy our Central Wasatch Mountains," Finlinson said. "You've got a lot of people utilizing a wonderful asset, a natural resource, and we need to be careful that we don't kill it with all our love."
The letter and court ruling are just the latest in a string of difficulties for the commission as it worked among numerous government entities to forge a workable planning and policy organization devoted to the future of area canyons.
Several Salt Lake County Council members said a week ago they would ask state Auditor John Dougall to audit the work behind the Mountain Accord. Dougall's office didn't immediately say Monday whether it had decided to honor the request.
A collection of conservation groups said last week the commission should avoid hiring staff at its first meeting and instead review public money that was spent to get to this point in the process.
"In light of the recent court ruling that the Mountain Accord needed to conduct open public meetings, we strongly recommend that no definitive action, particularly as it relates to hiring staff, be taken at the first meeting," the groups wrote. "We strongly believe, and therefore recommend, [that] this first meeting be a systematic review of the resources that have been used on a voluntary and paid basis over the last four years."
Representatives of Friends of Alta, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Wasatch Backcountry Alliance, Save Our Canyons, the Nature Conservancy in Utah and League of Women Voters of Salt Lake signed the July 13 letter.
Documents and the agenda for the inaugural meeting indicated the commission planned to vote on paying nearly $100,000 in expenses from consultants and attorneys this year.
Instead, the group decided Monday to spend more time looking over the invoices for work performed before approving the expenses.
tanderson@sltrib.com
Twitter: @TaylorWAnderson
Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune Traffic was brisk in Little Cottonwood Canyon Friday Feb. 5 after an overnight storm dropped some snow at the resorts. Phase 2 of the Mountain Accord process is being launched. It's emphasis will be to deal with existing traffic problems in the two Cottonwood canyons