A judge has entered a final judgment in favor of former Park City Planning Commission Chair Sarah Hall and her husband in a lawsuit that alleged work done on their property violated land management and building codes.
The Dec. 12 judgment by Third District Judge Matthew Bates dismissed the suit’s claims with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.
The suit centered on renovations to the 7-acre site at 2750 Meadow Creek Drive, owned by Sarah and Gerry Hall, who obtained a permit from Park City in October 2021 for the project. A group of neighbors who called themselves the View Crew alleged that Park City officials were not enforcing the codes and refused to hear their appeal of a decision denying a request for a stop-work order.
The suit also alleged Crescent Vertical L.L.C., a company owned by the Halls, failed to receive required permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to do work in wetlands on the property, including drilling a well.
Some of the claims in the suit were dismissed by another judge last year. In September, Bates dismissed the remaining claims, ruling that Crescent Vertical’s activities did not trigger a requirement to conduct a sensitive lands analysis.
The judge said nothing in the Land Management Code required Crescent to apply with the city to plant trees in one corner of its lot or to drill and install an irrigation well.
Robert Theobald, a land use researcher whose home is next to the property, and three other neighbors made a written complaint in late 2022 to Park City’s compliance department saying they had informally communicated their concerns about the project, but the construction and apparent violations “are unresolved and continuing.” Municipal officials decided the complaint was not sufficient to trigger an administrative appeal and that it was submitted too late.
Theobald filed the lawsuit in May 2023 seeking a review of the city’s land use decision involving the property, or in the alternative, enforcement of municipal ordinances. Six other neighbors joined in later as plaintiffs.
Park City Municipal and Crescent Vertical were named as defendants. Sarah Hall was the Planning Commission chair at the time the suit was filed.
Theobald said Monday he is not commenting on the suit’s dismissal until he talks to the other plaintiffs.
Gerry Hall has said the neighbors were asking for the code to be applied in a way that it has never been applied to other homes, and that their conclusions and allegations are incorrect.
Among them was a claim that the renovated home exceeded the maximum allowed square footage, he said. The remodel made the house’s footprint 200 square feet smaller, according to Hall.
Third District Judge Kent Holmberg dismissed Park City Municipal as a defendant in the case last year and threw out the suit’s claims that the city improperly approved a building permit because it did not require a conditional use permit, the remodel plan exceeded the allowable square footage, and the city issued a permit without requiring a Sensitive Lands Overlay analysis or a wetlands analysis. The judge said the appeal of those decisions was filed well after a 10-day deadline.