The Utah Court of Appeals on March 24 will hear the complaint of three Summit Meadows residents against Wasatch County.
The dispute began in 2023 when the Wasatch County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for the establishment of an anxiety treatment center for young girls called Cascade Academy. There is one other Wasatch County-based treatment center already in operation in Midway.
The treatment center is designed to aid young women between 13 and 18 with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. In 2023, Cascade Academy sought the permit for an eight-bed care facility at 1374 Red Filly Road in Heber City.
Nearby Summit Meadows Subdivision residents Dustin Sidwell, Marie Shelton and Brian Myers sought to reverse the approval of the conditional use permit after it was issued on Aug. 15, 2023. They argued that the approval of the treatment center was contrary to Wasatch County land use regulations.
After the Wasatch County Board of Adjustments — who dealt with the residents’ complaint as the land use authority — approved the conditional use permit, the Summit Meadows residents filed an official complaint on Sept. 14, 2023.
They argued the Planning Commission acted illegally when it approved the eight-bed facility in a 5-1 vote. Though the Planning Commission approved the permit on the basis of the proposed treatment center being a residential facility “for handicapped persons,” the residents argued that the entity erred in applying the Americans with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act to the conditional use permit application.
“Specifically, a residential facility for handicapped persons may not be operated by a private entity without a contract with the department of human services,” the Sept. 14, 2023, complaint explains.
Cascade Academy stepped in as an intervenor in the case after the complaint was filed against Wasatch County, the Wasatch County Board of Adjustments and the Wasatch County Planning Commission.
Fourth District Court Judge Jennifer Mabey heard oral arguments for the case on May 28, 2024. She ruled in favor of the Cascade Academy conditional use permit granted by the Wasatch County entities.
In her ruling and order, Mabey wrote that the petitioners “do not present a clear argument” to their claim regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court concluded that “a reasonable mind could reach the same conclusion as the land use authority.”
Mabey indicated that the property is in line with residential use (the treatment center is zoned for residential use), that the residential facility is for “handicapped persons,” that the center is consistent with the general plan and that the Americans with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act were appropriately applied in consideration of the conditional use permit.
The Summit Meadows residents filed an appeal to Mabey’s decision with the Utah Court of Appeals on Aug. 23, 2024. The court took up the appeal four days later.
The Utah Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments for the case on March 24. The Summit Meadows residents are seeking a reversal of the Wasatch Planning Commission and Wasatch County Board of Adjustments original conditional use permit approval.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that the Utah Supreme Court would weigh in on the appeal.