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Kane County committee endorses consultant review of resource plan after Chevron ruling
Summary
The Resource Development Committee voted Sept. 18 to ask staff to contact consultant Hayden Ballard to review the county's resource management plan in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's Chevron precedent, with the goal of tightening goals, objectives and policies to improve legal defensibility and usability.
The Kane County Resource Development Committee voted on Sept. 18 to direct county staff to contact consultant Hayden Ballard to review the county's resource management plan and recommend changes in light of recent legal developments.
Committee members debated whether the plan should be organized by region or by agency, with several members urging a clearer front-loaded section that states county goals, objectives and policies for each resource and moves historical material to an appendix to improve readability. "If you have a, a class 1 scenic area, you're not gonna ever get a right of way through there for power, water, etcetera," a committee member said while describing how federal designations can limit local infrastructure projects.
The discussion repeatedly returned to law enforcement and accountability on public lands. One member argued the county should insist that BLM law enforcement not act independently and that any federal officers work through the elected county sheriff: "We will not have any BLM law enforcement officers that are not deputized independently by the county sheriff who is the chief law enforcement Kane County," the member said.
Several members highlighted the Chevron decision as creating a new legal opportunity for counties to press their plans in court and recommended starting with targeted updates (grazing, visual resource management, rights-of-way) rather than a full rewrite. The committee agreed to pursue a phased approach: have Hayden Ballard review the plan, recommend specific changes to align objectives and policies with the county's legal strategy, and then determine whether to engage a contractor for a broader rewrite.
The motion directing staff to contact Ballard was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote.
The committee also discussed logistical next steps for drafting, funding and potential contracting, and emphasized the need to keep the plan usable for staff and resilient in litigation. The meeting adjourned following the vote.
