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MORGAN — The contentious dispute over the Wasatch Peaks Ranch project in Morgan County, waged in court for more than four years, is over.
"Everything is over. Everything has been solved," said Cindy Carter, part of a contingent of Morgan County residents that had pushed back against the massive resort project, spread over a portion of a parcel measuring some 12,000 acres.
She said the sides had been in talks for around two weeks — the residents, Morgan County officials and Wasatch Peaks Ranch representatives — and that they reached a middle ground after intense mediation this week. The agreement was finalized on Friday.
"This agreement was achieved after thorough discussions and community feedback with the primary objective of benefiting the larger Morgan County community," Ed Schultz, the Wasatch Peaks Ranch managing director, said in a statement Friday.
The Wasatch Ranch Peaks site, where homes, ski runs and a golf course have already started taking shape, is on otherwise undeveloped mountainous property east of Layton on the Wasatch Back.
Per Friday's accord, development of the Wasatch Peaks Ranch project may proceed and the legal cases revolving around the project will be dropped, Carter said. At the same time, Wasatch Peaks Ranch has agreed to place 2,300 acres of its land into a conservation easement, keeping it clear of development.
"This measure ensures that this area of land will be permanently protected from future development, preserving its natural beauty and ecosystem forever," reads the statement. It was jointly issued by Morgan County, Wasatch Peaks Ranch and the residents, including Carter, who had sought a referendum on the original 2019 zoning change that allowed the resort plans to move forward.
Wasatch Peaks Ranch has also agreed to help fund projects "specifically aimed at benefitting the residents of Morgan County," but the statement didn't provide any details on what the initiatives might be.
Carter said fear of overdevelopment figured in the residents' original lawsuit in 2019, which was aimed at putting a referendum on the ballot letting voters weigh in on the zoning change. They worried the Wasatch Peaks Ranch Project "was going to open the door for ridiculous (development)," Carter said.
On the other hand, she said the group seeking the referendum — herself, Robert Bohman, Whitney Croft, Shelley Paige, Brandon Peterson and David Pike — worried that the legal fight could have lasted four more years. "We figured this was the best option we could get under the circumstances," Carter said.
She wouldn't delve into the financial aspects of the resolution. The contingent seeking the referendum, which successfully argued their case in 2nd District Court, had sought legal fees in the matter. "That's stuff I can't talk about," Carter said.
Morgan County Attorney Garrett Smith couldn't immediately be reached for comment late Friday afternoon. But he had previously told KSL.com that the issue was tearing the Morgan County community apart. "Hopefully we can get things to settle and we can come together and we can move forward," Carter said.
The Morgan County residents sued the county in 2019 after county officials rejected the petition they filed as part of their efforts to force a ballot question on the zoning change approved just a month or so before for the Wasatch Peaks Ranch project. The residents argued they had properly filed the petition, and 2nd District Court Judge Noel Hyde ruled in their favor last September, potentially allowing their efforts to seek a ballot question on the zoning change to proceed.
Wasatch Peaks Ranch and Morgan County, the main target in the initial lawsuit, filed plans to appeal to the Utah Supreme Court. Then last November, the residents sued again in 2nd District Court, calling for a halt to work on the Wasatch Peaks Ranch project given the continuing questions over the zoning change.
Hyde last month sided with the residents, ordering a stop to work, precipitating the efforts that led to the out-of-court resolution on Friday. The Wasatch Peaks Ranch plans could have been thrown into disarray had the residents pursued a ballot question and had voters subsequently voted to reverse the 2019 zoning change at issue.
