Mapleton rejects Gibby's bid for mountain airport

MAPLETON (Deseret News)  — Small aircraft won't be landing or taking off on Maple Mountain in the near future.

On Wednesday, the Mapleton City Council rejected Wendell Gibby's bid to build a private airstrip there.

Defeated but undaunted, Gibby said he will try again after the Utah Supreme Court rules in the case of a group of residents attempting to stop Gibby from developing home sites on the mountain.

City attorney Eric Johnson said because city ordinance doesn't specifically allow airstrips, they are prohibited. Additionally, if the council allowed an airstrip on the mountain, the residents group Friends of Maple Mountain could use it to bolster its case against the city for rezoning Gibby's property to allow a subdivision.

The council also rejected Gibby's attempt to rewrite a city hillside-preservation ordinance to allow him to modify slopes of 30 percent or greater. He argued that the city has no rules in the code to measure mountain slopes and that he was being singled out. City engineer Gary Calder disagreed.

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