Judge dismisses federal lawsuit in West Hills incorporation fight
Judge Ted Stewart’s dismissal strips West Hills opponents of one federal weapon, but the fight over Kamas-area taxes, zoning and control is far from over. The Preserve says it will keep litigating.
Judge Ted Stewart’s dismissal of the federal lawsuit against Kamas narrowed, but did not end, the West Hills incorporation fight that could decide who controls growth, taxes and services along State Route 248 west of Kamas. The ruling cut off one federal path for pro-West Hills landowners and The Preserve, even as the larger battle over the proposed township, and its roughly 3,600 acres between Kamas and Hideout, stayed alive in state and local arenas.
The lawsuit had accused City of Kamas officials and the Kamas Valley Preservation Association of conspiring to derail West Hills by publicly opposing it. Stewart rejected the claim that emails, comments and other public communications amounted to fraud or a racketeering pattern, undercutting the plaintiffs’ attempt to turn a local land-use dispute into a federal RICO-style case. Kamas Mayor Matt McCormick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Preserve’s owner, Sam Castor, said the group plans to keep litigating. That leaves West Hills backers looking for another way to press a fight that has already split the community over whether a new town should be created at all. Kamas Valley Preservation Association says it was formed to oppose West Hills and protect the valley’s rural lifestyle, while opponents have argued that incorporation claims have been overstated.
The legal clash sits on top of a longer political campaign. West Hills sponsors filed a request for a feasibility study with the Utah lieutenant governor’s office on April 27, 2023, and the office certified the request that year. LRB Public Finance Advisors later reviewed the proposal, and the first public hearing notice said a December 13, 2023 study found the town would likely generate at least a five percent budget surplus. A modified study released December 5, 2024, said incorporation would likely produce at least a five percent average budget surplus.
By February 2025, reporting said only 47 registered voters would decide the incorporation election and that 11 signatures were needed to meet the petition threshold. The West Hills process then drew another constitutional challenge in May 2025, when Jennifer McCaffrey, Kurt Larsh, Kris and Patsy Klein, Tyler Gough and Chanelle McGregor, Lindy and Dan Sternlight, and Scott and DeEtte Earl sued Derek Anderson, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and the Utah Legislature. They argued the boundary map had been redrawn twice, leaving some owners without a vote while others were added after the fact.
For Kamas and surrounding neighborhoods, the dismissal does not settle who will shape future zoning, development rights and property taxes in the hills south of town. It does, however, remove one federal avenue for West Hills supporters and push the next round of the fight back toward the state and local officials already at the center of it.
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