Written by Marcos Camargo and Dan Mabbutt
On Friday, Aug. 7, Jeffrey C. Wilcox of the St. George Fifth District Court ruled to uphold a voter referendum blocking a controversial Virgin rezoning ordinance in the town. The rezone, approved by the Virgin Town Council in November 2014, would have allowed Zion Sunset Resort to develop a fully-equipped RV park on an 80-acre parcel of land originally zoned for residential use only.
The Virgin Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended that the Town Council reject the petition filed by Zion Sunset to rezone the property to allow commercial use, a necessary step in receiving approval to build the RV park. The Council bypassed the recommendation and approved the Virgin rezoning ordinance, triggering a response by several concerned citizens who filed a motion and started a petition forcing the ordinance to go to the referendum. The primary proponents of the voter referendum included Virgin residents Mark Savee, Adele Pincock and Linda Collet.
Since over half of the registered voters in Virgin signed the petition, the outcome of the referendum seemed assured; however, Zion Sunset has challenged the legitimacy of the petition, claiming that petitioners misled voters regarding Zion Sunset’s plans for creating the park.
The day before the referendum, Zion Sunset filed a motion asking Judge Wilcox for a temporary restraining order to prevent the referendum. Judge Wilcox denied the request saying, “The vote will happen. It’s not going to be held in suspension.”
The referendum passed in a 131-115 vote on June 23, with over 80 percent of Virgin’s registered voters turning out.
Despite Friday’s ruling, legal proceedings surrounding the Virgin rezoning case have yet to be resolved. Zion Sunset filed a lawsuit against Savee, Pincock and Collet alleging that the three—as well as up to twenty “John Does” yet to be named—stating that they made false and defamatory statements about Zion Sunset in order to garner public support and petition signatures for the referendum.
The defendants have created a web site (http://virginsfuture.org) appealing for assistance in fighting the suit. After the hearing, Linda Collet referred to the suit as a SLAPP suit: Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
Collet commented on the case saying that Zion Sunset Resort can still build their development if they follow the rules and work with Virgin to develop a “master plan overlay,” which would require a more detailed strategy to amend the Town’s master plan before any rezoning takes place. There is currently no information on whether such a proposal will be pursued.
Virgin Mayor Bruce Densley—one of the four Virgin Town Council members who voted in favor of the Virgin rezoning—was in attendance at Friday’s hearing.
“We won and we lost,” Densley said in response to the ruling. “We won the lawsuit, but we lost because Zion Sunset Resort would be a great thing for Virgin.”
