17-79-1001. Appeal authority required -- Condition precedent to judicial review -- Appeal authority duties.
(1) Subject to Subsection, each county adopting a land use ordinance shall, by ordinance, establish one or more appeal authorities. (1)(d) An appeal authority shall hear and decide: requests for a variance from a land use ordinance; appeals from a land use decision applying a land use ordinance; and appeals from a fee charged in accordance with Section. 17-79-802 An appeal authority may not hear an appeal from the enactment of a land use regulation. Beginning on July 1, 2026, a county described in Subsectionmay not designate the county's legislative body as an appeal authority. 17-79-302(5)(a)(i) Notwithstanding Subsection, a legislative body shall continue to be the appeal authority for an appeal if: (1)(d) a land use ordinance designated the legislative body as the appeal authority when the appellant filed the appeal: and the appellant filed the appeal on or before June 30, 2026.
(2) As a condition precedent to judicial review, each adversely affected party or land use applicant shall timely and specifically challenge a land use authority's land use decision, in accordance with local ordinance.
(3) An appeal authority described in Subsection: (1)(a) shall: act in a quasi-judicial manner; and serve as the final arbiter of issues involving the interpretation or application of a land use ordinance; and may not entertain an appeal of a matter in which the appeal authority, or any participating member, had first acted as the land use authority.
(4) By ordinance, a county may: designate a separate appeal authority to hear requests for variances than the appeal authority the county designates to hear appeals; designate one or more separate appeal authorities to hear distinct types of appeals of land use authority decisions; require an adversely affected party to present to an appeal authority every theory of relief that the adversely affected party can raise in district court; and provide that specified types of land use decisions may be appealed directly to the district court.
(5) A county may not: require a public hearing for a request for a variance or land use appeal; or require a land use applicant or adversely affected party to pursue successive appeals before the same or separate appeal authorities as a condition of an appealing party's duty to exhaust administrative remedies.
(6) If the county establishes or, before May 2, 2005, has established a multiperson board, body, or panel to act as an appeal authority, at a minimum the board, body, or panel shall: notify each of the members of the board, body, or panel of any meeting or hearing of the board, body, or panel; provide each of the members of the board, body, or panel with the same information and access to municipal resources as any other member; convene only if a quorum of the members of the board, body, or panel is present; and act only upon the vote of a majority of the convened members of the board, body, or panel.