Save Wasatch Back Dark Skies is dropping its lawsuit against Wasatch County filed after the community’s dark skies codes were changed at the recommendation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to suit its Heber Valley Temple project.
Group leader Lisa Bahash had said they planned to submit an amended complaint after the legal group’s lawsuit against the county was dismissed in November. But they, as well as every other plaintiff in the lawsuit, had a change of mind.
On Tuesday, their legal representatives filed a notice of dismissal, stating that their clients were voluntarily dismissing the action.
This is the latest in dark moments for the Dark Skies group.
Late last year, the group urged the Wasatch County Planning Commission to withhold its recommendation of the plans to the Wasatch County Council.
After that failed, the group continued to urge the council itself to withhold approval of the plans. Group members argued that the temple was too tall, too big, in the wrong location and put forward under a state loophole they didn’t consider honest.
Council members and county staff disagreed with their assertions, and the group’s pleas once again did little to prevent the structure and site’s approval.
Late last month, after months of a referendum effort to stop Wasatch County Council’s approval of the temple plans and instead leave the decision to voters, the group ended up being over 500 valid voters’ signatures short.
“We collected 2,657 signatures — an impressive number — yet short of the 3,235 number we needed to get the referendum on the ballot,” a post the group’s Facebook page stated at the time. “We started with 8 volunteer core members of the Dark Sky team and grew to 79 volunteers who all worked tirelessly in some way towards our goal. But more importantly, we thank the thousands of people who signed the petition. This is not a loss, it is in fact a beginning.”
The post also reminded Wasatch County residents that Wasatch County Council elections will be held this year.
Bahash is running as a Democrat for the council’s Seat B — an at-large position — and has not responded to requests for an interview.
Despite the end of the group’s 9-month-old lawsuit against the county, the council’s decision to approve the temple’s plans still faces litigation.
On Nov. 29, plaintiffs Bruce Van Dusen, Bruce Quade, Shawn Savarino and Dominic Savarino filed a lawsuit alleging that the legislative development agreement of the project was a blatant circumvention of county codes and the building’s construction would constitute personal damages against them through reducing their homes’ solitude and creating more noise, light and disturbances in the area.
“Petitioners’ view of the valley will be obstructed by the Temple,” the lawsuit alleges, and it pushes for the structure’s approved plans to be deemed “invalid, unenforceable, void and of no force and effect.”