Kane takes its road fight to court -- again

Kane County's legal wrangling with environmental groups over access to and ownership of roadways in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument made a return trip Tuesday to a federal appeals court. In 2005, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society sued the county after it ordered the removal of more than 30 road-closure signs posted by the Bureau of Land Management and then dumped the markers at a BLM office in Kanab. The county then posted its own signs, indicating the roads were public and open to motorized vehicles. Kane's unilateral action triggered a host of lawsuits, most of which the county has lost. Last September, a three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Teena Campbell's 2008 ruling that the county's actions created conflicting management plans for the area. The federal government, she said, pre-empted local authority. But the appellate court agreed to revisit several issues surrounding the case, setting the stage for Tuesday's review by the full circuit court. Among the issues is whether the environmental groups -- as private entities -- had legal standing to challenge the county's actions. Kane County's attorney, Mike Lee, who is running against Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, argued Tuesday before the 11-judge panel that for decades the county has maintained and regulated the area's roads and that locals use them to get to and from their homes...more