Tool

[KQ]

I'm sad to say I know this guy:

Development fight mires Alta

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/oct/10202...te_tn_9004.jpg
Alta Town Administrator John Guldner, seen in front of a vacant lot in the Cecret Lake area, says records requests from two land owners denied the right to develop lots are burdening his staff. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)
By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

It's a battle between those who live in Alta and those who want to -- a dispute mired in allegations of voter fraud, scores of records requests, cries of missing money and, now, a lawsuit.

Yes, controversies are mounting in the resort town of Alta.

Two people -- Kevin Tolton and his mom, Judy Maack -- are leading a fight to develop property in Alta's Albion Basin, a picturesque glen that sports homes for some of the town's 370 residents. Town officials say the properties cannot be developed, mainly because the new homes would lack water and sewer access.

That's where the trouble begins.

In the past several months, Tolton and Maack have requested hundreds of records from Town Hall, trying to prove access is possible.

Last month, Tolton sued in 3rd District Court to get access to some records that Alta says are either protected or unavailable. He also wants the town to pay him damages because, he claims, if he can't build, the town essentially has condemned his property.

Tolton and Maack also filed to run for Town Council, but were booted from the ballot because town officials say the two have not lived in Alta long enough -- a requirement of state law. Tolton then fired off a complaint to the Attorney General's Office alleging that some of the current council members do not live in Alta. The Attorney General's office has asked for more information, a spokesman says.

Adding to the fuss, several people requested absentee ballots for this month's primary, but their addresses, town officials say, turned out to be vacant lots in Albion Basin or rented rooms at a town lodge.

Town officials say the hubbub is getting so heated, work is going by the wayside. The open public comment period in town meetings was tossed after officials say Tolton, Maack and others hogged the time to badger the council. In recent months, Tolton and Maack hired a stenographer to make a transcript of every meeting.

"This effort is tying up the town where we can't do our business," says nine-term Mayor Bill Levitt. "We're such a nice community -- we don't need this."

Counters Tolton: "The town has been conducting business illegally and all of what they have done is null and void."

Ballot bickering: In a town Alta's size, every vote matters. During this month's primary, 83 people voted. Seven others requested absentee ballots, but were told to provide proof of residence when they sent in the ballots; the ballots never came back.

Tolton and Maack ran into the same barrier when they tried to run for Town Council. In filing for office, they swore oaths that they lived in Alta, citing residence in the Peruvian Lodge -- where a manager says they still rent rooms. The town balked, and the two were dropped from the ballot.

"I was baiting the town," Tolton acknowledged in August. "I wanted to see if they would call themselves on their own illegal [acts]."

"You've got a voter-fraud problem," Maack adds. "You can see it's all a bunch of nonsense."

Tolton maintains that Councilmen Paul Moxley and Tom Pollard do not live in Alta either.

In the phone book, Moxley lists three addresses: one for his office in downtown Salt Lake City, one for a condo in Alta and one for a home in Salt Lake City's tony Yalecrest neighborhood.
Pollard lists one address: a home at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. But he notes he has an apartment in the resort town.

"My residence is up here [in Alta] and always has been," Pollard says. "I'm here every day. I have an apartment up here, and I work up here, too."

Moxley says his primary residence is in Alta, but "I'm a lawyer and I travel a lot for my business."

Asked where he spends most of his time, he says, "In Salt Lake some of the time, in Alta some of the time and on the road some of the time."

On tax forms, Moxley claims his Alta property as his primary residence. For the past two years, Pollard has received a primary-residence tax exemption on his home at the mouth of the canyon.
Alta's town administrator, John Guldner, lists the town's

dispatch center as his address, according to Salt Lake County voting records. Guldner, though, acknowledges he lives in Salt Lake City, but also has a room in Alta.

Alta's dispatch center does provide some employee housing, Guldner says. He first lived there in 1982 when he registered to vote. Guldner says he has not abandoned his Alta residence and can legally claim that as his home. His wife and children live in Salt Lake City.

"It's my permanent deal," he says. "Part of my [job] contract is I get a place to stay there."

Paper chase: Tolton has appealed two records requests -- each seeking multiple documents -- to the State Records Committee. Guldner says once during a committee meeting, Tolton was asked what town records he was seeking. According to Guldner, Tolton responded, "All of them."

Town Attorney Paul Thompson says the requests are often ambiguous and overly broad. Some, he adds, ask for compiled data that are not already available.

"Over the years, the town has given out thousands of records," he says. "There's nothing to hide, but when you have a situation where it requires research . . . then we can't afford to do that without bringing in a part-time person."

Tolton has received about 900 documents from the town, ThompÂson says, noting that the dispute has burdened the town's four-member staff. "It's gotten very tense." an't afford to do that without bringing in a part-time person."

So give up the records, Maack responds. "They act like they're people with a lot to hide," she says.

Tolton, for example, wants to see whether Alta can account for donations from a grass-roots group called Friends of Alta.
"Things don't match up," Maack says.

Mayor Levitt, whose wife, Mimi, runs the foundation, says all the numbers check out.

"There is no money missing," the mayor says. "The man is off his rocker."

Building on the basin: There is, however, water missing from the formula that would allow Tolton and others with property in the Albion Basin to develop.

"They are insisting that the town put in sewer and water so they can sell [homes] and make a profit," Levitt says. "The town can't give them that. Salt Lake City will not allow it, and they own the water."

Salt Lake City has denied requests for water, according to city Public Utilities Director LeRoy Hooton.

"I can't do it," Hooton says, citing a 1976 contract that capped the amount of water the city provides the basin.

Plus, the basin is in the watershed and the city does not want any more development there. There is no water flowing to the 21 cabins now located in the basin; those homes received building permits in the late 1970s and residents either have to truck in water or tap nearby springs.

And the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already ruled that Salt Lake City and Alta do not have to provide water to the basin. In a similar case in 1999, the court said that Alta and the city have no responsibility to supply access to water, according to Thompson.

"The issue is put to bed," he says.


Friends of Alta attorney Pat Shea says his group's mission is to preserve the area and notes that the current controversy is more than just between Alta residents and those who want to be.

"There's a third, larger, international group that sees Alta as a state of mind . . . that would be greatly disturbed if there's development in the pristine, Alpine meadows," he says, noting that when he dies, he wants his ashes sprinkled in Alta, but on the meadow, not on buildings.

To that point, Shea says, Friends of Alta has offered to buy Tolton's and Maack's properties to save them as open space. So far, the two have rebuffed offers of $30,000 each, Shea says.
Maack says she knows of no such offer but wouldn't sell anyway.

"I want to build my home," she says. "I have a right -- a constitutional right. They have allowed certain other people to build, why not us?"


Levitt agrees they have property rights, but not to build on "vacant land that doesn't have sewer or water and can't get them."

[Buster Highmen]

I missed that part of the constitution. Where does it say I can build wherever I want to?

[KQ]

You know - I like his Mom and I can't believe he's dragged her into this. I swear he must not have any friends left. All he ever does is sue ppl.

Like I said - he's a total tool with a Napoleon complex. I hope Alta does all they can to stop him.

He actually believed for a while that he had some lost Indian gold mine (of Mormon legend) on his property. He hired some guy (same guy that told him he had the mine) to dig and dig and dig. What a joke.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Oh, you know these people? The dude sounds like a total nutcase. How long have they owned this property? Sounds like someone didn't do their due diligence before buying...

[teledave]

I say one afternoon when they are up at their property would be a good time to do some test firing of the avy guns.

SLC won't allow development in LCC because it's (one of) their primary watershed. They won't even allow dogs up the canyon. The man wants to develop because there is a pile of money to be made if he can get it going. I really dislike people that look to get rich with no regard for the public good.

Really though he doesn't stand much of a chance; now if he were to become aligned with a major real estate player or skiing company then we'd all pobably be amazed at how quickly the laws would change to accomodate them.