By Miki Mullor
Hideout Town council has rolled back the increase in water meter connection fees it enacted in March 2022. The Hideout Comment‘s June 19 report exposed the possibly illegal aspect of that increase.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
Facing questions from citizens and the Hideout Comment, Town of Hideout’s Mayor, Phil Rubin, and the Town Engineer Timm Dixon, were unable to support with facts their action to raise water meter fees on new residents by more than 450%. The March 2022 fee hike, approved by the Town’s council, may be violating Utah State law, which protects residents against unreasonable fee hikes.
The fee hike was initiated by Dixon, who relied on misinformation to justify it, and supported by Rubin, who made questionable public statements on the validity of the fee hike.
The Town was expected to gain about $445,000 a year from the hike, per the Town’s FY23 budget. Utah law prohibits cities from generating profits from water connection fees.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
In a June 9 ruling, District Court Judge Jennifer Mabey handed the Town of Hideout another legal loss in the court case regarding the denial of building permits in Golden Eagle on the basis of infrastructure reasons.
By Miki Mullor
The Town of Hideout council will be discussing tentative FY24 budget. It also has notified the public of restating the FY23 budget that was “driven by fewer new subdivisions being developed and higher legal professional costs.”
The Town is using a transfer of $156,225 from the its capital fund to close the deficit in the FY23 budget.
FY24 is expected to have a deficit of $455,000 that “will need to be funded by an increase in property taxes and town fees and well as continued control of town expenses and utilization of prior year capital fund surpluses.”
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
The Planning Commission for the Town of Hideout gave an informal nod to the Bloom project, proposed in the area known as Salzman property.
The 114 acres area between SR 248 and the Golden Eagle subdivision is proposed to become a resort-like development of Town-homes, luxury casitas, a boutique hotel, a few retail shops and a community amphitheater. In total, Bloom, the development company behind the proposal, is asking the Town to up-zone the area to allow a total of 255 residential units and 30,000 – 35,000 sq ft of commercial space.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
This morning Judge Jennifer Mabey of the 4th District Court issued a temporary restraining order barring the Town of Hideout from relying on four of the five reasons it has been using to deny building permits in Golden Eagle. The ruling on the fifth reason was deferred until at least May 19.
The ruling deals a major setback to the Town which has been insisting it is only trying to enforce the law as written, spending so much on legal fees, that it is now expecting a $300,000 to a 500,000 budget deficit next year.
Mustang Development LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, contended that the Town was abusing it’s permitting power to pressure Mustang on a defamation lawsuit it brought two years ago against Mayor Phil Rubin personally – an argument the judge seem to agree with.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
The court rescheduled the ruling on Mustang’s motion for a TRO to May 1 at 11 am.
“Although the Court has spent significant time considering the pleadings and evidence presented by the parties’, it is not quite prepared to render its decision on the pending motion. Accordingly, with the Court’s apologies to the parties for the delay and any inconvenience that may result, the oral ruling is continued to Monday, May 1, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.” – wrote Judge Mabey in the scheduling order.
By Miki Mullor
Analysis
On Monday, April 24, at 8:30, Judge Mabey will give an oral ruling on the building permits dispute between Mustang Development LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, and the Town of Hideout.
The judge is expected, for the first time, to decide which of the reasons used by the Town to deny building permits in Golden Eagle, are valid, and which are not.
Indirectly, this decision may have significant impact on the Town’s finances (already projected to be in a $300,000 – 500,000 deficit), if the Town continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees or possibly be liable for future damages to land owners.
Continue readingBy Miki Mullor
The Golden Eagle development in Hideout now officially has more lawsuits pending than built homes.
The 300+ development of custom homesites sold about 100 lots when conflict between the developer, Mustang Development LLC and the Town of Hideout, broke in April 2021.
Continue readingOn March 16, Mustang Development LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, has filed another lawsuit against the Town of Hideout, raising the stakes in three year legal battle between the two entities.
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The Hideout Comment 