Residents speak out against proposed land use rules in San Juan County

SALT LAKE CITY – Residents packed a meeting in San Juan County to voice concerns about proposed rules for how property owners can use their land.

The San Juan County Planning Commission discussed the issue Thursday evening in a meeting that lasted five hours and got heated at times.

Eventually, after hammering out specifics of the rules — known as a land use ordinance — the planning commission voted to approve them.

But this issue has been the subject of intense controversy in southern Utah, even prompting calls for one county leader to resign.

“I’m for smaller government, not bigger government,” said Mark Anderson, a San Juan County resident who was the first of many public commenters at Thursday’s meeting.

“This entire act is more fitting for a homeowners association,” added Joy Howell, who lives in Mexican Hat.

San Juan County officials insisted their current land use ordinance is woefully out of date and needs to be clarified.

“It’s a mess,” Mitch Maughan, San Juan County attorney, said. “It contradicts itself.”

The new ordinance would regulate a lot of things, including short-term rentals and keeping RVs on a property. It also initially put limits on agricultural use, such as how many animals people could keep and where they could feed them. But the public pushed back against that, causing the planning commission to remove that portion of it.

People were also upset that during a meeting last month, county planning officials mentioned specific residents by name as justification for the new rules without those residents being able to defend themselves.

“I do want to apologize for things that we said that we shouldn’t have,” Trent Schafer, the planning commission chair, said at Thursday’s meeting. “We are human.”

Upset residents had circulated a petition calling for the county’s planning administrator, Kristen Bushnell, to resign or be fired. But in a Facebook post, officials called that “highly inappropriate” and “inconsistent with the values of San Juan County.”

“Negative statements about specific employees can escalate to a form of harassment and bullying which can be viewed as harmful actions towards a public employee,” the post stated. “We kindly ask for your assistance in stopping the petition and in spreading it through social media or other communication channels.”

KSL TV asked San Juan County administrator Mack McDonald if that post meant to suggest there could be legal action against the person who started the petition or those who supported it.

“At this time, we do not feel that it has reached the extent of legal action or criminal charges against anyone and we are hoping that it does not,” McDonald said in an email Thursday.

After gathering hundreds of signatures, the petition against Bushnell was eventually closed. At Thursday’s planning commission meeting, Bushnell told residents she was “saddened” by the petition and social media comments about her, but she defended the need for the new ordinance.

“Our intent was more property rights, more economic opportunity, more ability for people to find housing,” Bushnell said. “There is no one up here on this panel that would argue those weren’t our tried-and-true goals.”

But many who attended the meeting argued the proposed rules would limit property rights and were not ready for prime time.

“Less government is better,” said Curtis Pugh, who lives near Blanding. “Let private property be private property.”

The land use ordinance still needs to be approved by the San Juan County Commission before becoming official.