Tag Archives: Hideout

Hideout Resolves First of Four Legal Disputes With Mustang Development in $600,000 Settlement

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By Miki Mullor

Hideout, Utah —

The Town of Hideout has reached a $600,000 settlement with Mustang Development LLC, resolving the first of four pending lawsuits between the town and its master developer and ending a long-running dispute over impact fees and infrastructure reimbursement while three additional cases remain active in Wasatch County court.

The settlement, approved in November 2025, brings to a close litigation that traced back to Hideout’s earliest years as a newly incorporated town. The agreement ends the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, and resolves all disputed payments owed through Sept. 30, 2025, while preserving the town’s reimbursement obligations going forward.

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Hideout’s water rights deficit: a $13-25 million water bomb ?

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After the Hideout Comment exposed in our last story another misrepresentation by Mayor Phil Rubin to the town council, his administration trips over itself in attempts to save his credibility.

In the process, the administration alluded to potentially even a bigger problem looming over Hideout: the approval of development without acquiring water rights, a problem that could prove very costly, to the tune of $13-25 million potentially.

Lack of transparency by the administration and Rubin leaves much of the issues in the dark, including the financial viability of Hideout moving forward.

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Hideout’s attempt to hike water rates by up to 54% tests the Mayor’s credibility

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By Miki Mullor

Forced to roll back water connection fees, the Town of Hideout is now proposing water usage increases by up to 54%. Mayor Phil Rubin blamed the rate hike on an increase in the cost of water charged by the Town’s wholesale supplier, Jordanelle Special Service District (“JSSD”).

JSSD has denied it raised rates on Hideout. Documents obtained through a GRAMA request from JSSD show no rate increase in the last two years.

Hideout’s budget proposal for FY24 shows that water costs are in fact expected to be lower than the four year average and lower than FY21 and FY22. Salaries and benefits cost on the other hand is set to increase by 42% compared to last year, and by 226% compared to FY21.

This might be the second time Rubin is relying on misrepresentation to the council to raise public fees. After we published our story on the use of fabricated data to justify gouging water meter fees, the council voted to roll back those fees and issue refunds to impacted residents.

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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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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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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.

Developer’s lawsuit’s hearing moved to Nov 18

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Mustang LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, has sued the City of Hideout over refusal to issue building permits to Golden Eagle land owners. A judge issued a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order), which compels the city to not arbitrarily refuse issuance of building permits.

After the city did not issue permits, Mustang filed a motion for sanctions – which means it is asking the judge to punish the city for ignoring the TRO.

The city replied with specific reasons for denying each and every pending permits, essentially telling the judge the denials were not arbitrary – and therefore the city has not violated the TRO.

A hearing in the matter in scheduled for Nov 18. The public may be able to watch the proceedings by zoom. Subscribe to receive the zoom details when we get it.