Kane County roads case goes to full appeals court

Patty Henetz

A federal appeals court will revisit an earlier ruling that found Kane County illegally tore down signs restricting off-highway-vehicle use in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The case will be heard in Denver by the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

After removing 31 road-closure signs in 2003, the county put its own signs on hundreds of roads within the monument and the park, asserting it had authority to manage the roads under a Reconstruction-era statute known as RS 2477.

In 2005, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society sued the county and, in May 2008, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ruled Kane County was in the wrong.

On Sept. 1, 2009, a three-judge panel of the 10th upheld Campbell's ruling 2-1. Judge Michael McConnell, a former Utahn, dissented, arguing that Kane County shouldn't have to prove that it owns the roads. He also sided with Kane County's argument that the environmental groups had no standing in the case.

The full court last week ordered lawyers to address several issues in their briefs for the rehearing, including whether the plaintiffs have standing, whether a local government can assert road-ownership rights without litigating quiet-title actions road by road and whether Kane County's decision to remove its road signs makes the case moot.

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Source: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14376028

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