1.15 Appeals and Review Process

Decisions by the Planning Commission, or Town Council, or other Town official regarding conditional uses and zoning decisions or application of this code, may be appealed to the Board of Adjustment. Any person(s) within the Town who believes he/she may be adversely affected by a decision of the Town Council, Planning Commission or other Town official regarding the application of the decision or this code, and/or the owner of the subject property affected shall have standing to appeal a decision of the Planning Commission, Town Council,and/or other Town official or staff. Appeals from Town actions shall be by letter or petition and contain the name, address, and telephone number of the petitioner, his or her relationship to the project or subject property, and the reasons for requesting review, including specific provisions of this Code, if known, that are violated by the action taken. 1.15.1 Written Findings of Denial Required The Planning Commission or Town Council shall always prepare detailed written findings on any application that it denies, amends or approves. These findings shall state the reasons for the action and the provisions of this Code or other Town ordinances, or guidelines, or applicable State or federal laws or regulations that would be violated by the action, if any, and the proposed conditions of action to be imposed and the reasons why those conditions were thought necessary. These findings shall then be made available to the Board of Adjustment for their use in the appeal process. 1.15.2 Appeal Petitions Process Besides the owner of the property acted on by the Town and Town officials, any person living within the Town who submitted written comment on a proposal before the Planning Commission or Town Council, and the owner of any property affected within the Town has the right to appeal to the Board of Adjustment any final decision of the Planning Commission or the Town Council. The petition must be filed in writing with the Town Secretary within fifteen (15) calendar days of final project action. The petition for the appeal shall state the name, address, and telephone number of the petitioner and his/her agent, if any, the name of the project, and the grounds for the appeal. The Board of Adjustment shall set a date for the appeal hearing, which shall be no more than thirty (30) calendar days from the date the notice of appeal is filed with the Secretary and meet the notice requirements of section 1.6. The Town Recorder shall notify the petitioner and the owner of the project of the appeal date. The Town Recorder shall obtain the findings and all other pertinent information from the Planning Commission and Town Council and transmit them to the Board of Adjustment. 1.15.3 Action on Petitions The Board of Adjustment may affirm, reverse, or affirm in part and reverse in part any decision of the Planning Commission, Town Council, or other Town official regarding conditional use or zoning decisions. The Board of Adjustment may remand the matter to the Planning Commission, Town Council,or other Town official with directions for specific areas of review or clarification. Board of Adjustment review of petitions of appeal shall be limited to consideration of only those matters raised by the petition(s), unless the Board by motion, enlarges the scope of the appeal to accept information on other matters it may legally hear. 1.15.4 Stay of Approval Pending Review or Appeal Upon the filing of an appeal for review by the Board of Adjustment of a Planning Commission or Town Council decision, any action passed on this matter by the Planning Commission or Town Council will be suspended until the Board of Adjustment has acted on the appeal. 1.16 1.15.5 Appeal from the Board of Adjustment Any appeal of a Board of Adjustment decision shall be taken in accordance with the provisions of section 10-9-708, Utah Code Annotated, 1953, and as may be ammended. Termination of Projects It is the policy of the Town to require developers submitting projects to the planning process to move their projects to either approval or denial in a reasonably expeditious manner. The time required in the planning review process will vary with the size and complexity of each proposal, and the establishment of exact time requirements for review is impractical. It is the policy of the Town to formally deny projects submitted to the process which remain inactive for long periods of time due to acts or omissions of the developer. 1.16.1 Termination of Applications When the Town Board believes that a project that has been formally submitted is not making normal progress towards final approval, it shall take the project before the Planning Commission and request the Planning Commission to deny the project application and close the files with respect to that project. No project shall be taken to the Planning Commission for denial on the basis of inaction without giving 60 days written notice to the developer and the responsible agent by certified mail. Such notice shall state the intent of the Town Board to have the project denied because of inaction and the time, place, and date when the matter will be taken before the Planning Commission. 1.16.2 Inaction Defined A project shall be deemed inactive and subject to denial on the basis of inactivity if, through the act or omission of the developer and not the Town: (a) More than three months has passed since the last meeting of the Town staff or Planning Commission and the developer; (b) More than three months has passed since a request for additional information was made by the Town staff which request has not been complied with or the developer's reasons for non-compliance are not stated; (c) The developer is more than 60 days in default of the payment of any fee assessed by ordinance, or has not paid the fee under protest; (d) The developer has stated his intent to abandon the project; (e) The project appears to have been abandoned; or (f) The application appears to have been filed in bad faith for the purpose of attempting to vest rights prior to a zoning change or code change, without actual intent to construct the project applied for. Delays occasioned entirely by internal delays of the Town or any commission or board shall not be cause for termination. 1.16.3 Reinstatement A developer may appeal the Planning Commission's denial of a project for inactivity to the Town Council, or the action may be called up by the Council. The Town Council may reinstate subject to payment of full or partial submission fees, reinstate subject to specific ordinance changes, or deny reinstatement. If reinstatement is denied, all interest in the application ends. If the developer desires to proceed with the project, he must start at the beginning of the process with a new submission and payment of new submission fees, and shall be subject to all ordinances then in effect.