Injunction causing hardship for some local residents, Wasatch Peaks Ranch representative claims

Judge Noel S. Hyde’s preliminary injunction against Wasatch Peaks Ranch which prohibits any work on the development until a citizen referendum is explored is already negatively impacting the company’s employees and subcontractors who are Morgan County residents, Wasatch Peaks Ranch Managing Director Ed Schultz told the Morgan City Council on Dec. 12.

“While this is very impactful to us as a company and us as members of the community, it is also very impactful to you all as members of the community,” he said. “We have over 190 employees, 40 of which are Morgan residents. We now have 140 approvals from Morgan County and also the state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that have been put into question.” 

County taxpayers are also being impacted, he said, because the taxes that could be collected from the completed phases of the development will not be generated while the project is on hold.

“The 50 home sites that we platted and created in 2022 resulted in tax payments to Morgan County that totaled $2.2 million,” Shultz said. “Those Morgan County taxes that were paid by our members and ourselves also fund the school district which many of the of the city’s residents and the school kids attend. The percentage [of those taxes] is around 70 percent that goes to the school district, and now fast forward to 2023, we have plotted another 50 to 55 home sites. Those 50 home sites based on assessed values in 2022 for the original 50 could have created up to another $4.5 million of taxes for the county and the school district. That’s all been put into question now.” 

The injunction is affecting the entire community, he said, and work by the resort’s 300 subcontractors has been shut down except for protective maintenance allowed by Judge Hyde. 

“We are still trying to calculate the impact dollar-wise and the impact to the people,” Shultz said. “Those employees that cannot be redeployed are going to have a very difficult Christmas, and you know those employees are based in Morgan County, Weber County, Davis County, Summit County, Salt Lake County.”

Shultz brought what he said was a dozen letters from employees and subcontractors who are being negatively impacted by the shutdown. 

“I've read every one of them,” he said. “I've talked to, I know these people, and it's going to be a difficult Christmas for a lot of people.”

The company is also starting to see tertiary impacts on local businesses, including on a Morgan City business that leases vehicles to Wasatch Peaks Ranch, he said.

“We believe in constitutional rights,” he said, referring to the five Morgan County residents who are seeking a citizen referendum on the original 2019 rezone that brought the development into existence. “We believe in all citizens’ constitutional rights, our constitutional rights, your constitutional rights, and the constitutional rights of the individuals, but there has to be a responsibility exercised with those rights. I’m not a constitutionalist or an attorney, but I just wanted to raise awareness of the impacts to your friends, your neighbors, your fellow citizens, and your children and grandchildren.”

Afterward, Mayor Steve Gale thanked Schultz for his comments but neither he nor the city council addressed any of the issues raised by Shultz. λ