working landscapes. They supported grazing, hunting, recreation, watershed protection, and agriculture alongside carefully limited development. Federal public lands generated payments in lieu of taxes, grazing revenues, mineral revenue sharing, and other federal program funding that flowed directly to counties like Duchesne and just supported roads, emergency services, law enforcement, and schooling. Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands likewise produced recurring revenue through grazing, service leases, and mineral development while maintaining a stable land base that supported local ranching operations and agricultural economies and generated predictable funding and revenue for Utah schools and institutions. Publicly accessible lands are also anchored in recreation, hunting, tourism, and outfitting economies that keep money circulating within local communities through lodging, fuel, equipment, guidance services, and small businesses.

These revenues were renewable, community-based, and tied to continued public access and long-term stewardship rather than one-time land disposition. The record reflects a departure from that balanced model toward a development-first approach, in which land disposition and industrial compatibility questions are addressed incrementally, parcel by parcel, rather than through comprehensive land-use planning. As publicly accessible lands have been fragmented and converted, the long-term fiscal and community benefits associated with public trust ownership have declined or shifted away from the county. One-time land transactions and privatization do not replace the sustained economic value of public trust funds, which generate annual revenue, preserve agricultural viability, and support rural economies year after year. As stable revenue sources diminished, pressure increased to industrialize adjacent private and agricultural lands through conditional-use permits.

That pressure has coincided with reduced scrutiny, segmented review, and growing public concern about the county's land-use governance. The result has been a slow degradation of accountable leadership and stewardship, in which long-term public benefits are subordinated to short-term approvals, and in which land use, once central to Duchesne County's agricultural economy and environmental identity, is increasingly treated as expendable. This context is key as conditional use permits are among the last remaining tools available to ensure development proceeds in a manner consistent with the County's general plan and public obligations.

When those permits are issued without rigorous findings or integrated review, the consequences extend beyond individual projects. They accelerate the loss of public land values, agricultural stability, and stewardship responsibilities entrusted to this commission. The South Myton Bench and, by extension, the Nine Mile Anthropogenic hunting corridor reflect this shift in real time. Where lands that once contributed to sustained public revenue, supported agriculture, and anchored recreation through public trust management are now bearing the cumulative burdens of privatization and industrial decisions made without the careful stewardship and integrated review the County's own code requires. Under Duchesne County Code Section 8-13-4, these broader stewardship and fiscal consequences are not abstract policy concerns.

But required considerations in determining whether conditional use, as approved and actually operating, is materially detrimental to public health, safety, and welfare, and to the long-term compatibility of the area. The approvals issued on April 2nd did not create that problem. Rather, they exposed it. The Nine Mile LLC data center and associated projects, including the wastewater facility and the 2 power plants, are not isolated errors or technical oversights. The record shows it is the culmination of a longstanding pattern of failed duties in industrial permitting all across Duchesne County.

For several years, the county has relied on conditional use permits as a default approval mechanism for projects that historically were not appropriate for conditional approval under local land-use law. These include oil and gas drilling, production, and compression facilities. Standard produced water disposal and recycling operations, industrial-scale sand and gravel mining spanning hundreds of acres, and heavy-haul industrial corridors cut through agricultural and rural land. That reliance is legally significant. Under the Duchesne County Code and most county municipal legislation, a conditional use permit is a limited tool.

It is intended to allow uses that may be appropriate only in specific locations and only where their reasonably anticipated detrimental effects can be mitigated through enforceable