BRIGHAM CITY, Utah — Attorneys for Box Elder County and celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group of residents over a rejected citizen referendum.
In a pair of court filings last week, they point to the Military Installation Development Authority as controlling law in this space, urging 1st District Court Judge Spencer Walsh to reject the lawsuit.
"The issue does not turn on whether the Military Installations Development Authority’s ('MIDA') Stratos Project is wise or popular. Nor does it turn on whether MIDA’s decisions concerning the project were legislative. The issue turns on whether the Commission’s decisions, which merely implemented existing law—namely MIDA’s implementing statute—were administrative. Because the Resolutions were administrative, Plaintiffs’ lawsuit fails as a matter of law," O'Leary's attorney, Mark Morris, wrote in a filing.
When Box Elder County commissioners voted to approve O'Leary's Stratos Project, a group of residents sought a citizen referendum to put it to a public vote. That was rejected by the Box Elder County Attorney, who made a similar argument that the residents sought to put an administrative resolution to a public vote. The residents ended up suing over it.
O’Leary said a demand letter arrived before his change on China influence:
In its own court filing, Box Elder County argued that much of the deal for the Stratos Project was done before commissioners ever took a vote.
"The County first learned of the Stratos project in late March. By then, several private landowners had already signed real estate contracts with the developer, intervening defendant O’Leary Digital Utah Development Co., LLC (Developer). MIDA asked the County to consent to the private properties’ inclusion in the project area. The County confirmed that the landowners supported the project but postponed its vote whether to consent to allow time to gather additional information and seek public comment," Barton Kunz II, the attorney for Box Elder County, wrote in their motion to dismiss.
"In April, the County hired a law firm to advise the County regarding its options. A significant issue was that the property within the project area was unzoned. That status materially limited the County’s ability to regulate land use in the area."
Kunz also argued that lawmakers did not violate Utah's Open and Public Meetings Act in their deliberations, nor did an op-ed in a local newspaper explaining their vote violate the law.
The responses to the lawsuit brought by the Box Elder County residents is standard in litigation. Judge Walsh has yet to schedule a hearing on the motions to dismiss, but it is expected to happen in the coming months.
O'Leary's massive data center project near the Great Salt Lake has sparked significant protest and public pushback, largely over environmental concerns. Some of the public anger has been directed toward MIDA, a state entity that can push through development projects on a speedier timeline because some of its applications can benefit the military.
There are now several lawsuits against the data center project, including one filed against O'Leary and FOX News over comments he made suggesting some critics were acting on behalf of the Chinese government. The targets of those comments have sued, alleging defamation after O'Leary and FOX News walked back those remarks. (Although FOX 13 is a Fox television affiliate station, it is fully owned by the E.W. Scripps company with no ownership connection to Fox Corporation.)
Two of the county commissioners who approved the Stratos project lost their primaries against other challengers.
Read the response by Kevin O'Leary's attorneys here:
Read the response by Box Elder County here:
