Tooele County wants to vacate public right-of-way interests on several roads near Ophir in the hopes of settling a long-running feud over private property rights and public access. But some residents in the area oppose the move, saying it could effectively close some areas to the public.

Sections of roadways proposed for vacation include Bald Mountain Loop Road, Halls Basin Road, Rover Hill Road, Hartmann Gulch Road and South Fork Ophir Canyon Road. The Tooele County Planning Commission voted to recommend vacating the roads last Wednesday and the matter has been forwarded to the county commission, which has yet to make a decision.

Kerry Beutler, Tooele County senior planner, said the county has been working with landowners in the area to address concerns regarding vandalism, trespassing and litter, as well as how to maintain some public roads for recreation.

“The county’s proposing to vacate the public interest of these roads that pretty much dead-end or aren’t part of the loop, and in exchange for that we’re going to maintain the other roads as open and continue to have access through those,” he said.

Tooele County Commissioner Jerry Hurst said when he and commissioner Bruce Clegg got into office, the battle between private landowners and those wanting public access had gotten very heated. In 2006, large pits were dug into a road leading to Jacob City, making it impassable just before the first weekend of the deer hunt.

“When we got wind of it [the feud], we just said, ‘Hey let’s get together and see if we can work something out,” Hurst said.

Confusion over which roads are public and which are private stems from multiple closures and openings over the years.

“As I understand it, if the road has been used by the public for 10 years and there’s no opposition, then it is indeed a public road,” Hurst said. “There have been lawsuits going back and forth in other parts of the state where people have tried closing roads, and they only have to be closed one day of the year to qualify as a private road.”

However, Hurst agreed public access rights on some of these roads have not been clear-cut.

“There are some roads there that have been in contention for years and years,” Hurst said. “What we’re trying to do is come up with a plan that’s going to be good for the public and good for the landowners. There’s been a lot of abuse on that land and we want to help curb that. We also want to give the public access through private property on county roads and to public lands. At the same time, we want to be cognizant of the rights of the property owners, and we want to preserve valuable habitat and watershed.”

Hurst said people have vandalized private property, torn down signs and gates, and driven off-road in the areas under discussion.

“The problem is people won’t stay on the roads and so we see unauthorized trails all through the watershed and critical habitat areas,” Hurst said. “I understand the frustration of the private landowners when that happens. So our hope is if we provide places for people to recreate and make them into loop-type trails then people will be less likely to abuse the private land.”

Hurst said the Bureau of Land Management has attended meetings on the issue and has had a lot of impact on these decisions.

Beutler said some of the roads proposed for vacation dead-end on private property.

“The assumption is there’s no reason to go up those roads except to go on private property, and if it’s not their property they shouldn’t be going there,” he said.

Not everybody is happy with the vacation proposal, however.

Ken Wilson, of Tooele, said he’s concerned if the county vacates the roads that private landowners will put gates up and restrict access. He recreates and hunts in the area.

“That’ll allow them to put gates on everything up there and we’ll lose all of that access,” he said, adding he’s been traveling on these roads for about 40 years. “There is no alternate access. The roads they’re talking about closing will pretty much shut all of that access down there.”

His daughter, Marisa Wilson, is also concerned.

“My daughter is a Vario and their history goes back pretty far in that area,” she said.

“I don’t think that it’s fair that a private landowner can take over access to a public road and then that leaves everybody else without any access,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of private land up there but there’s also a lot of public land.”

She added, “The fact that it is an access road to public lands, I realize that it does run through some private land, and you know when the general public’s involved there’s always going to be someone ruining it for someone else, but I think for the majority of people who access that area, to close that off because one or two people cut down a tree on somebody else’s property is not fair.”

Hurst said the county is only proposing to vacate select roads. He added most of the roads are going to remain open, some of which will be limited to certain kinds of travel.

“Some of the public has the perception that we’re just abandoning all the roads,” he said. “But there are very few roads we’re vacating. There are still roads going into private land and the landowner has agreed to leave open. It’s been a lot of give and take. It’s not perfect but I think it’s a good start and I think we’ve been diligently working to get something that will be good for everybody — the landowner and the public as well.”

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com