Judge hands Hideout another loss in its costly war on Golden Eagle

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By 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.

  • The court ruling leaves the Town no more reasons to wholesale deny building permits in Golden Eagle
  • It is estimated the Town spent around $250,000 on this failed legal fight, and missed hundreds of thousands more in building permit fees.
  • The Town seems poised to continue its war on Golden Eagle, now denying Certificate of Occupancies, on largely the same infrastructure reasons.
  • Higher property taxes are expected, as the Town now runs a $250,000 annual deficit.
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Hideout restates FY23 budget amid legal expenses, revenues shortfall – expects higher taxes

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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.”

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255 units “resort-like” development proposed for the Salzman property

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By 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.

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BREAKING NEWS: Judge rules against the Town of Hideout over Golden Eagle building permits

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By 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.

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Court decision moved to May 1

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By 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.

Judge will give her decision on Golden Eagle tomorrow

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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.

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Mustang files a second lawsuit against the Town of Hideout

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Mustang Development LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, files a second motion for a temporary restraining order against the Town of Hideout.

The dispute is over the refusal of the Town to issue building permits (and one certificate of occupancy) to private landowners who bought lots from Mustang. In July 2022, Mustang filed its first lawsuit, asking the court to enjoin the Town from denying building permits under a blanket policy. Mustang accused the Town of retaliating against it and its lot owners over an unrelated dispute between them.

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Hearing in Mustang’s case v. Hideout resumes on Dec 2

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By Miki Mullor

The November 18 hearing in Judge Brown’s courtroom lasted the entire day. The hearing was to determine whether the town violated the temporary restraining order (“TRO”) Judge Brown issued earlier this year. In the TRO, Judge Brown ordered the Town to not hold landowners “hostage” to the dispute between the Town and Mustang, the developer, by denying building permits on pretext.

Mustang moved to issue sanctions against the Town for continuing refusal of building permits which in their mind is a violation of the TRO. The Town denied it violated the TRO and explained in its response there are specific infrastructure and fire safety issues for which the permits were denied.

Mustang contended these issues were pretext.

The Nov 18 was an evidentiary hearing, in which the court heard testimony from various witnesses, including former Town officials, to determine whether the issues the Town raised in its rejection of building permits are valid or not.

If the Court found the issues valid, then there could be no violation of the TRO by the Town and the motion for sanctions by Mustang must be dismissed.

At the start of the hearing, the Town attorneys argued that even if the court finds the issues invalid, there can still be no violation of the TRO because the TRO did not specifically identified the infrastructure issues as potential pretext. Essentially, the Town argued that first the Court must find the issues invalid before any future denials can be seen as violation of the TRO. If the Court agreed with the Town, then even the Court found the issues the Town raised to be pretext, it wouldn’t issue sanctions unless the Town continued to reject building permits.

The court did not seem to buy the argument but the door was left open for a ruling later in the day after the evidence was presented.

The hearing lasted several hours in which multiple witnesses testified in person and over zoom over much of the history of the relationship between Mustang and the Town.

The hearing will continue on December 2 with closing arguments. The Court may or may not issue a ruling then.