{"data":{"id":"us-ut/utah-code-10-20-1101","jurisdiction":"us-ut","citation":"Utah Code § 10-20-1101","heading":"Appeal authority required -- Condition precedent to judicial review -- Appeal authority duties.","body":"(1)\n(a) Subject to Subsection (1)(d), each municipality adopting a land use ordinance shall, by ordinance, establish one or more appeal authorities.\n(b) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a) shall hear and decide:\n(i) requests for a variance from a land use ordinance;\n(ii) appeals from a land use decision applying a land use ordinance; and\n(iii) appeals from a fee charged in accordance with Section 10-20-904.\n(c) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a) may not hear an appeal from the enactment of a land use regulation.\n(d) Beginning on July 1, 2026, a city described in Subsection 10-20-302(5)(a)(i) may not designate the city's legislative body as an appeal authority.\n(e) Notwithstanding Subsection (1)(d), a legislative body shall continue to be the appeal authority for an appeal if:\n(i) a land use ordinance designated the legislative body as the appeal authority when the appellant filed the appeal; and\n(ii) the appellant filed the appeal on or before June 30, 2026.\n(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.\n(3) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a):\n(a) shall:\n(i) act in a quasi-judicial manner; and\n(ii) serve as the final arbiter of issues involving the interpretation or application of a land use ordinance; and\n(b) 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.\n(4) By ordinance, a municipality may:\n(a) designate a separate appeal authority to hear requests for variances than the appeal authority the municipality designates to hear appeals;\n(b) designate one or more separate appeal authorities to hear distinct types of appeals of land use authority decisions;\n(c) 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\n(d) provide that specified types of land use decisions may be appealed directly to the district court.\n(5) A municipality may not:\n(a) require a public hearing for a request for a variance or land use appeal; or\n(b) 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.\n(6) If the municipality establishes or, before the effective date of this chapter, has established a multiperson board, body, or panel to act as an appeal authority, at a minimum the board, body, or panel shall:\n(a) notify each of the members of the board, body, or panel of any meeting or hearing of the board, body, or panel;\n(b) provide each of the members of the board, body, or panel with the same information and access to municipal resources as any other member;\n(c) convene only if a quorum of the members of the board, body, or panel is present; and\n(d) act only upon the vote of a majority of the convened members of the board, body, or panel.","path":["Title 10 Utah Municipal Code","Chapter 10-20 Municipal Land Use, Development, and Management Act","Part 10-20-11 Appeal Authority, Variances, and District Court Review"],"source_url":"https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title10/Chapter20/10-20-S1101.html","current_through":"2026 General Session","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-03T11:34:33Z","sha256":"331b93435e7fbf9dbd7e05948d5d98b373fdf05a506531fd1c9f9c1ed8e17d87","source_id":"us-ut","stale":false,"prev":"us-ut/utah-code-10-20-1003","next":"us-ut/utah-code-10-20-1102"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}