Box Elder County referendum to overturn approval for data center will not go on November ballot

SALT LAKE CITY — The Box Elder County Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that the referendums proposed by residents to overturn approvals for the Stratos Project Area would not be referred to voters for the November ballot.

The Box Elder County Attorney’s office conducted a legal review of three referendum applications, and determined the county commissioner’s approval of the data center plans are not laws citizens can overturn.

According to the Box Elder County website, Box Elder County Attorney Stephen R. Hadfield determined the resolutions the commissioners voted on were not “legally referable to voters.” The approvals were administrative actions not a legal ones.

“In my opinion, both the statute and the case law interpreting it define Resolutions 26-11 and 26-12 as administrative actions of the Box Elder County Commission, not newly created laws,” Hadfield said. “Accordingly, because I am obligated to interpret and uphold the law, I am legally bound to reject the applications for referenda of these resolutions. I fully anticipate and appreciate that this will allow referendum sponsors who disagree with my opinion to appeal to the state courts for further guidance and resolution.”

Fiscal impacts 

Along with a legal review, the county also had to conduct a fiscal review of the referendum applications.

Box Elder County Auditor Shirlene Larsen said they determined that “repealing the resolutions would result in the loss of guaranteed revenue, including $5.4 million annually and an estimated $108 million annually at full capacity.”

The review also found that if the development were to move forward without the resolutions that were approved by the county commissioners, “the county would likely face increased expenditures of approximately $5.4 million per year for services such as fire, ambulance, and police, and holding a special election for the referendums would cost the county an estimated $55,000.”

Larsen said this analysis was prepared in good-faith and unbiased manner. Hadfield agrees that these referendum applications were not taken lightly.

“I acknowledge and take very seriously my responsibility to uphold the constitutional right of Box Elder County residents,” Hadfield said.

Pushback continues

Brenna Williams, lead liaison for the Box Elder Accountability Referendum group (BEAR), said she is not surprised by the decision, considering residents have not had a say in this at all.

“People are supposed to be the final power,” Williams explained. “That’s where the power is supposed to be, in the hands of the people, and it hasn’t been. We haven’t been considered at all.” 

Williams said they had around a thousand people call in recent days, asking when they would be able to sign the petition to get the referendum on the ballot. The group was preparing to collect upwards of 5,400 signatures if it had been approved, and they were confident they had the support to meet that threshold.

“It’s just going to make them angrier,” Williams said. “People are already angry. They’re so angry and it’s been really hard to keep people tamped down with, ‘This is what you can do and this is the way to do it.'”

The county attorney’s office stated that under Utah law, sponsors have the right to challenge or appeal a decision to a district court or the Utah Supreme Court within a specified timeframe. Williams said they already have several lawsuits to appeal the decision in the works, which they hope to file in the next week.

---

Read more: Second water rights application for Box Elder County data center withdrawn