OGDEN — As was hinted at during an April City Council meeting, a group of Ogden-Hinckley Airport users has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the municipality is causing them to unjustly suffer financial losses.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, lists the Ogden Regional Airport Association, Wendy Marsell and Wayne Law as plaintiffs. The group is being represented by Doug Durbano and John Keiter from the Northern Utah-based Durbano Law Firm. High-profile Salt Lake City lawyer Bruce Baird is also listed as an attorney, according to court documents. Baird has been involved in numerous real-estate suits against Utah municipalities over the past several decades, according to a February profile published in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The formerly dormant ORAA, made up of a contingent of general aviation proponents at the airport, was resurrected earlier this year in an effort to address some of the group’s concerns at the airport. Marsell and Law are residents of Weber County and presumably users of the airport.

At its core, the suit is a response to a set of airport policy changes that were proposed by the Ogden City administration and in April subsequently approved by the Ogden City Council. The amendments adopted by the council included several price increases for common airport activities like parking, aircraft landing and tie-down fees, and for security badges, but the real rub centers around the city’s intent to begin exercising what are known as “reversionary rights.”

Reversionary rights allow a landlord, in this case Ogden City, to take ownership of property that sits on a leased premises after a lease expires. The airport operation involves the city leasing ground to individuals, who can then build on that ground, which most significantly involves the construction of individual airplane hangars. So in essence, the city leases swaths of land at the airport, allowing for the construction of private property there. But when those lease terms are up, the city, under the reversionary clause, can ultimately take whatever has been built. The city’s ordinance does allow for the removal of any property at the end of a lease, but the group’s lawsuit says “it’s “very unlikely that tenants will voluntarily incur the cost of removing existing hangars at the end of term.”

During the April council meeting when the proposal was adopted, Ogden City Attorney Gary Williams said the amendments, and specifically the renewed city interest in exercising reversionary rights, were meant to provide a “forecast” to current tenants about the future of the airport. The city’s 20-year master plan for the facility shows that the city wants to recruit aerospace companies to the site and continue to develop commercial passenger air service to make the airport more financially sound. The city wants to redevelop the airport’s west side to help meet those objectives.

The group’s suit states that through prior dealings with hangar owners, the city has “intentionally instilled a reliance that … leases would consistently be renewed to encourage hangar owners to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into their hangars so that the city could obtain ownership of the improved hangars for facility leases prior to the hangar owners seeing any significant return or realizing the full benefit of the leasehold improvements.”

The suit references the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that “private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The legal action also says the city’s management of its airport security badge procedure is unjustly keeping plaintiffs from accessing their personal property. The suit asks the court for an injunction, which would essentially stop the city’s plan until some sort of resolution is reached. The suit requests a jury trial and also asks for, among other things, “just compensation” for any property taken by the city.

Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell said the city’s legal staff is reviewing the suit, but noted the city doesn’t typically comment on outstanding litigation.

“But obviously, I believe we’re on solid legal ground,” the mayor said.

Prior to the adoption of the ordinance, the city granted leases of a maximum 15 years for a private hangar, 20 years for a commercial aeronautical operator and 25 years for “fixed based operators,” which are organizations that provide aeronautical services like fueling, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction and more. Williams said with the pending west side development, the mayor’s office has concluded that the old lease terms didn’t allow prospective tenants to pay off construction debts fast enough, which hinders the city’s ability to attract new commercial enterprises.

The new ordinance gives the Ogden airport manager the authority to grant leases of up to 40 years, which theoretically gives tenants time to amortize their investment. The airport lease agreements are essentially a form of construction financing, where a particular tenant pays for construction on Ogden’s airport and then pays a discounted rent to the city.

The city’s measure will honor the leases currently in place, but as can be deduced from the suit, current, general aviation hangar owners whose leases will expire soon, and presumably not be renewed, say the city’s plan is unfair to them.