Cindy Carter, allied with the five Morgan County residents who sued in 2019 to force a public referendum on the zoning change needed for the plans to proceed, says truck traffic in the project area was intense last week. Even Monday it was heavy, with cement trucks and dump trucks heading into the area to aid with the work, she said, though it seemed to have eased some.

“You should see it. It’s crazy,” Carter said.

Reps from Wasatch Peaks Ranch, or WPR, declined comment on Tuesday since the matter is still in court. But they filed a motion last week in 2nd District Court in Morgan asking the judge in the case to order a stop to efforts to petition for the referendum as they appeal the Sept. 15 ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.

Wasatch Peaks said in its filing that state code “prohibits the (Morgan) County Clerk from initiating the referendum process until WPR’s appeal of this Court’s determination is concluded. As a result, the Court should enter an order staying the referendum during the pendency of the appeal,” reads its filing. The five residents’ lawyer hasn’t yet responded to Wasatch Peaks and he did not respond to a query from the Standard-Examiner seeking comment.

Per the Sept. 15 ruling, District Court Judge Noel Hyde determined that the five residents properly filed paperwork in 2019 required to initiate the petition process to seek a challenge to the Morgan County Council decision granting the zoning change needed for Wasatch Peaks plans to proceed. Then-Morgan County Clerk Stacy Netz Clark had rejected the petition from Whitney Croft, Robert Bohman, Brandon Peterson, Shelley Paige and David Pike on Nov 21, 2019, prompting their suit against Morgan County on Nov. 27, 2019.

Per the Sept. 20 Wasatch Peaks filing seeking a halt to the referendum process, at least until the appeal is resolved, the resort developer indicated it will appeal Hyde’s Sept. 15 decision on procedural grounds. The five petitioners should have updated their original lawsuit to name the new county clerk after Clark left office, Wasatch Peaks has said, an argument Hyde rejected.

As of Tuesday, Wasatch Peaks hadn’t yet filed an appeal with the Utah Supreme Court, according to online records. Either way, the stakes in the case are notable.

If the Supreme Court upholds Hyde’s decision, the five Morgan County residents could seek signatures on petitions to force a public referendum on whether the Oct. 30, 2019, Morgan County Council zoning change for the Wasatch Peaks plans should stand. If the issue goes to the ballot box and voters repeal the zoning change, the turn of events could potentially put the Wasatch Peaks resort project in flux, even as construction moves forward.

The plans call for skiing and golf amenities and new housing spread on a sprawling, largely undeveloped 12,000-acre parcel off Interstate 84 and west of Morgan.

In that vein, Carter maintains that Wasatch Peaks has been redoubling construction efforts so it can make the case ahead of a referendum, if it gets to that, that it’d be financial folly to repeal the zoning change, thus potentially making for naught the work completed thus far.

“I think Wasatch Peaks is trying to get as much done as they possibly can,” she said. Carter was targeted in a separate suit filed by Wasatch Peaks against her and the five other Morgan County residents in the matter, since dismissed.

Carter also criticized Morgan County for not ordering a halt to the Wasatch Peaks work and not providing the petitions needed as part of the referendum process. “Morgan County is blatantly, blatantly denying us our constitutional rights. They are walking all over our constitutional rights,” she said.

Morgan County Attorney Garrett Smith didn’t immediately respond to a query seeking comment.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a misspelling in the name of Morgan County resident Robert Bohman. The Standard-Examiner regrets the error.