Summit County board upholds revocation of nightly rental license for 857 Westwood Road

The Summit County License Review Board on a unanimous 5-0 vote upheld the business license revocation for a nightly rental at 857 Westwood Road, deciding the county clerk had authority to revoke the license based on the county’s conditional use permit and council findings.

Board members limited their review to whether the business license administrator acted appropriately based on the information she had when she revoked the license. County staff and counsel told the board the operative conditional use permit (CUP) and subsequent county-council findings state that no structure on the parcel may be used for commercial purposes and that the council specifically classified nightly rentals as commercial activity. Deputy county attorney Linda Vidi said the council’s findings (dated 08/30/2024, as provided to the board) support revocation because the license had been issued without required approvals. “The initial conditional use permit said that no structure on this parcel may be used for a commercial purpose,” Vidi told the board, and the council’s appeal decision concluded that “nightly rentals are commercial.”

The license holder, Gregory Dell, and his counsel argued the record shows the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission removed a prohibition on nightly rentals in mid-2016 and that a later December 2016 document improperly reinserted the prohibition after the meeting. Counsel for Dell characterized the December insertion as a clerical mistake and urged the board to consider planning-commission minutes and other exhibits showing the commission’s intent. “This was a mistake,” Dell’s counsel said, arguing the mistake is the basis for the county’s later enforcement actions. Dell testified he believed he had the right to apply for a nightly rental license based on the 2016 proceedings and said he did not see the December minutes until he received a February 2024 notice of violation.

Board counsel and several members cautioned that the License Review Board’s authority is narrow. Ryan Stack, deputy county attorney, advised the board their task was to determine whether to uphold, modify, or deny the business-license administrator’s revocation; other proceedings and administrative-law hearings were separate and not dispositive for the board’s decision. Board members repeatedly framed the issue as whether the administrator had sufficient grounds based on the CUP and the record available when she acted.

After brief deliberation focused on that narrow question, County Manager Shane Scott moved to uphold the revocation and Chief Ben Nielsen seconded. The board then conducted a roll-call vote; the chair announced the motion passed unanimously 5 to 0. The board did not return the matter to the administrator for further proceedings and did not issue additional findings beyond affirming the administrator’s action.

The board adjourned following the vote. The record before the board includes county staff reports, planning-commission minutes, the CUP, the county-council decision, and documents proffered by the appellant; parties raised disputes about the meaning and provenance of several of those documents, which informed but did not alter the board’s narrow legal conclusion.