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ERDA, Tooele County — An 80-foot flagpole located near Tooele Valley Airport is not flying with Salt Lake City in the latest dispute between the city and a Tooele County landowner.
Utah's capital city, which owns and operates the airport, filed a lawsuit in 3rd District Court against an Erda family who installed the flagpole and the City of Erda for declining to revoke the family's building permit when the permit was void. They call the flagpole a "hazard" for pilots who use the airport.
The lawsuit, filed on July 21, seeks to have the family remove the recently installed flagpole and reverse an Erda City Council decision tied to allowing the flagpole to stay, while the Federal Aviation Administration reviews the situation.
Meanwhile, Erda City Council Chairman Jess Bird told KSL.com Tuesday that there was a mistake made on the city's end last year that erroneously allowed the flagpole to be constructed at its current height, which the city is trying to correct. He said the city is crafting a letter, which he expects will be delivered this week, informing the family that their flagpole is in violation of city code.
"The lawsuit is not a surprise at all," he said. "Salt Lake City, they want to have an ability to do something about this flagpole (but) they don't have jurisdiction, so I guess it makes sense."
An ongoing feud
The flagpole immediately caused a stir when the Kunz family constructed it on May 12, but the story of these two neighbors goes back way further in time.
Salt Lake City acquired the small field in 1993. As Salt Lake City International Airport continues to bring in more commercial airlines, the Erda airport supports business and recreational flights, including skydiving. It's also home to the Bureau of Land Management's wildfire operations and other emergency flights.
The Kunz family acquired a 20-acre plot of land nearby about seven years later, the Tooele Transcript Bulletin said last week. The outlet reported that Salt Lake City voted to take about 12 acres of airspace by eminent domain in 2007 to help with airport operations; however, the 3rd District Court in Tooele ruled in 2019 that ruling was invalid over the procedures the city took at the time.
Then, a year after that, the Kunz family filed a lawsuit against Salt Lake City over the airport's operations, alleging that the airport has "created nuisances across the landowners' property in the form of, among other things, noise, invasion of airspaces, lights, fumes, vibrations and other nuisances attendant to the operation of an airport and flight aircraft."
Court records show the lawsuit is still ongoing.
Then came the flagpole. The airport sent a warning to pilots to be aware of it while taking off and landing as soon as it was discovered, Salt Lake City lawyers wrote in the new lawsuit. They add that the unlit 80-foot pole is about 1,260 feet southwest of the airport's lone runway within a section of land that "must be free of hazards."
A preliminary FAA report that Salt Lake City cites indicates that any pole height above 61 feet will "result in a substantial adverse effect and would warrant a Determination of Hazard to Air Navigation," though the federal agency has yet to formally weigh on the issue. The airport has since paused night operations until the flagpole is down to that height because it's unlit and disrupting the airport's instrument landing system.
What happens next?
A spokesman for Salt Lake City told KSL.com the city doesn't typically comment on pending litigation, but the new lawsuit was filed in an effort to restore flight operations at Tooele County airport.
"Our primary goal at all of our airport locations, including Salt Lake City International Airport, South Valley Regional Airport and Tooele Valley Airport, is to ensure safe air travel, day and night, for everyone in an aircraft and residents living in close proximity to airport property," the statement reads.
KSL.com was unable to reach the Kunz family for comment on Salt Lake City's lawsuit, and the family has yet to formally respond to the lawsuit in court. However, Neil Kunz told the Tooele Transcript Bulletin that it essentially serves as "a fence" between the two properties.
"I never in my life thought I would need to build an 80-foot high fence to protect my property," he told the outlet.
He told the Erda City Council on May 25 that he was confused about the concerns because he received a permit last year, adding the zoning language indicated there's a restriction on "building" height but not on "structure" height.
The permit is only valid for six months unless there is progress made within that timeframe. Kunz told the council that he dug the foundation in November and began pouring concrete on April 21 after the region's long winter.
We acknowledge that we made a mistake in approving that application and granting that building permit. I guess new cities make mistakes too.
–Jess Bird, Erda City Council
This led to a City Council debate over whether digging the foundation counted as making progress. The council ultimately decided not to revoke the building permit on July 13, a week before Salt Lake City filed its lawsuit.
Salt Lake City lawyers wrote that the Tooele County Land Use Ordinance, which Erda had temporarily adopted as land use regulation, specifies that construction begins when there is "pouring of concrete footing for a building or structure," which would make the permit void if the concrete was poured in April.
Meanwhile, the city's code allows for a pole up to 35 feet within the zoning district. All projects above that height must go through a conditional use review before they are approved.
Bird explained that Kunz filed an application for the pole not long after the city incorporated at the start of last year. The newly formed city contracted an engineering firm to handle all the applications and interpret codes at this time, and a permit for a pole up to 120 feet was "accidentally" approved at that time, the councilman said.
The city is now looking to fix that error. The letter that the city plans to send will acknowledge that the pole is in violation of city code, but it was still unclear Tuesday as to what level of enforcement the city has in deciding what happens to the pole. A judge may have the final word unless the FAA intervenes.
"We don't really see it as our fight," Bird said. "We acknowledge that we made a mistake in approving that application and granting that building permit. I guess new cities make mistakes too."
He adds that the city would gladly grant the family a permit for a flagpole up to 35 feet should they re-apply, but anything more would have to go through a review.
