During the 2024 Legislative Session, Representative Casey Snider sponsored H.B. 502 Critical Infrastructure and Mining, an attempt to override local land use authority by preventing local governments from “unreasonably limiting” mines and gravel pits and requiring that they provide water and other utilities for these operations. The concerning provisions were removed and the bill later passed as a study bill to analyze aggregate (sand, gravel, etc.) supply and demand in Utah.

Although the results of the study from H.B. 502 found that there was no looming shortage of aggregate in Utah and recommended land-use decisions remain with local governments, Rep. Snider is sponsoring a new bill that asserts just the opposite. A slightly watered down version of last year’s H.B. 502,  H.B. 355 Critical Infrastructure Materials Amendments makes it easier for certain gravel pits to expand to any land the company already owns or controls, and to new, contiguous land later acquired, while greatly limiting a local government’s ability to deny the expansion. The bill also repeals requirements for a person claiming a “vested” critical infrastructure materials operation (ex. a gravel pit) to prove the use, and instead requires a person challenging the use to disprove the use.