Citizens’ request for data center permit review dismissed
EVANSTON — A formal petition requesting a judicial review of the Uinta County Commission’s issuance of the Prometheus Hyperscale conditional use permit has been dismissed by Third District Court Judge James Kaste.
On July 16, a month after the Uinta County commissioners voted to approve the CUP, residents Christy Katzl, Wilhelm Katzl and Marijke Rossi filed the petition citing property value, community and environmental safety concerns, in addition to lobbying a number of other allegations.
The petitioners accused county officials and developers of engaging in private and unadvertised meetings and failure to conduct and provide environmental impact studies, particularly regarding the “closed-loop” system the data center developer has said it will implement. They also accused county commission chair Mark Anderson and commissioner Eric South of nepotism in relation to approval of the project.
Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson Kallas, who represents the commission, filed a motion to dismiss the petition on July 24. The petitioners had 15 days to respond.
Rossi requested and filed a notice of voluntary dismissal from the petition, which Kaste approved without prejudice on Tuesday, Aug. 4.
On Monday, Aug. 17, the remaining petitioners were issued an order of dismissal by the judge in part due to the parties not responding to Kallas’ motion to dismiss within the time allowed by the Wyoming Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Additionally, “the Court finds that the Petitioners have failed to sufficiently allege that they are aggrieved or adversely affected ... and, therefore do not have statutory standing,” Kaste’s response states.
“Petitioners make no effort to allege any specific perceptible harm different from any other person in Uinta County ... and they have failed to avail themselves of the opportunity to expound upon those allegations in response to the Motion to Dismiss,” the ruling continued.
“The Court can only conclude that the Petitioners do not have standing to challenge Uinta County’s decision to issue the Conditional Use Permit,” Kaste wrote.
Christy Katzl also filed a formal objection and notice of violation of the Wyoming Open Meetings Act on Aug. 4, outlining identical grievances in addition to accusations that the county failed to respond to her multiple public records requests made on July 14, July 21, July 22, and Aug. 1.
“She (Katzl) asserts that there is an active hiding of public records,” Kallas said, publicly responding directly to each of Katzl’s complaints during the Aug. 4 commission meeting.
Kallas said that despite Katzl’s failure to complete the appropriate request forms, the Uinta County Clerk’s office has 30 days to fulfill her requests should it choose to proceed without the forms.
“Every citizen is asked to fill out a public records request in Uinta County... It is a formal provision that we try for equality for all citizens,” Kallas said.
This story was published on August 20, 2026.
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