Court of Appeals hears challenge over developers use of eminent domain to install water and sewer easements

The Utah Court of Appeals on Oct. 27 heard arguments in Wild Country Holdings v. We5 over whether a private developer may use eminent domain to acquire utility easements for water and sewer lines that would be conveyed to municipal or district providers.

Wild Country Holdingscounsel said the Utah eminent domain statute is organized around "uses" rather than actors and allows private parties to condemn for public infrastructure, subject to statutory safeguards. Responding counsel countered the court should construe eminent domain powers narrowly and insisted the condemnor must be the entity that will provide the public service.

The case arises from a landlocked parcel on a mountain above Sandy City. Wild Country sought easements to install roughly 15 feet of underground pipe — a work the developer says will cost "several hundred thousand dollars" because of the terrain — and asked the trial court for immediate occupancy to allow installation. The trial court denied immediate occupancy; both sides then pursued interlocutory appeals that the appellate court consolidated.

"May it please the court, this is a case about the extent of eminent domain power in…