Utah Code

Utah Code § 78B-6-501 (2026)

Eminent domain -- Uses for which right may be exercised -- Limitations on eminent domain

✓ current as of May 2026

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As used in this section:

"Century farm" means real property that is:

assessed under Title 59, Chapter 2, Part 5, Farmland Assessment Act; and

owned or held by the same family for a continuous period of 100 years or more.

"Mineral or element" means the same as that term is defined in Section 65A-17-101.

"Mining use" means:

the full range of permitted or active activities, from prospecting and exploration to reclamation and closure, associated with the exploitation of a mineral deposit; and

the use of the surface, subsurface, groundwater, and surface water of an area in connection with the activities described in Subsection (1)(c)(i)(A) that have been, are being, or will be conducted.

"Mining use" includes, whether conducted on-site or off-site:

sampling, staking, surveying, exploration, or development activity;

drilling, blasting, excavating, or tunneling;

the removal, transport, treatment, deposition, and reclamation of overburden, development rock, tailings, and other waste material;

the recovery of sand and gravel;

removal, transportation, extraction, beneficiation, or processing of ore;

use of solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in solution;

smelting, refining, autoclaving, or other primary or secondary processing operation;

the recovery of any mineral left in residue from a previous extraction or processing operation;

a mining activity that is identified in a work plan or permitting document;

the use, operation, maintenance, repair, replacement, construction, or alteration of a building, structure, facility, equipment, machine, tool, or other material or property that results from or is used in a surface or subsurface mining operation or activity;

an accessory, incidental, or ancillary activity or use, both active and passive, including a utility, private way or road, pipeline, land excavation, working, embankment, pond, gravel excavation, mining waste, conveyor, power line, trackage, storage, reserve, passive use area, buffer zone, and power production facility;

the construction of a storage, factory, processing, or maintenance facility; and

an activity described in Subsection 40-8-4(19)(a).

Except as provided in Subsections (3), (4), and (5) and subject to the provisions of this part, the right of eminent domain may be exercised on behalf of the following public uses:

all public uses authorized by the federal government;

public buildings and grounds for the use of the state, and all other public uses authorized by the Legislature;

public buildings and grounds for the use of any county, city, town, or board of education;

reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, flumes, ditches, or pipes for conducting water or sewage, including to or from a development, for the use of the inhabitants of any county, city, or town, or for the draining of any county, city, or town;

the raising of the banks of streams, removing obstructions from streams, and widening, deepening, or straightening their channels;

bicycle paths and sidewalks adjacent to paved roads;

roads, byroads, streets, and alleys for public vehicular use, including for access to a development; and

all other public uses for the benefit of any county, city, or town, or its inhabitants;

wharves, docks, piers, chutes, booms, ferries, bridges, toll roads, byroads, plank and turnpike roads, roads for transportation by traction engines or road locomotives, roads for logging or lumbering purposes, and railroads and street railways for public transportation;

reservoirs, dams, watergates, canals, ditches, flumes, tunnels, aqueducts and pipes for the supplying of persons, mines, mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores, with water for domestic or other uses, or for irrigation purposes, or for the draining and reclaiming of lands, or for solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals or elements in solution;

roads, railroads, tramways, tunnels, ditches, flumes, pipes, and dumping places to access or facilitate the milling, smelting, or other reduction of ores, or the working of mines, quarries, coal mines, or mineral deposits including oil, gas, and minerals or elements in solution;

outlets, natural or otherwise, for the deposit or conduct of tailings, refuse or water from mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores, or from mines, quarries, coal mines or mineral deposits including minerals or elements in solution;

mill dams;

gas, oil or coal pipelines, tanks or reservoirs, including any subsurface stratum or formation in any land for the underground storage of natural gas, and in connection with that, any other interests in property which may be required to adequately examine, prepare, maintain, and operate underground natural gas storage facilities;

subject to Subsection (6), solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals in solution; and

any occupancy in common by the owners or possessors of different mines, quarries, coal mines, mineral deposits, mills, smelters, or other places for the reduction of ores, or any place for the flow, deposit or conduct of tailings or refuse matter;

byroads leading from a highway to:

a residence; or

a farm;

telecommunications, electric light and electric power lines, sites for electric light and power plants, or sites for the transmission of broadcast signals from a station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission in accordance with 47 C.F.R. Part 73 and that provides emergency broadcast services;

sewage service for:

a city, a town, or any settlement of not fewer than 10 families;

a public building belonging to the state; or

a college or university;

canals, reservoirs, dams, ditches, flumes, aqueducts, and pipes for supplying and storing water for the operation of machinery for the purpose of generating and transmitting electricity for power, light or heat;

cemeteries and public parks; and

sites for mills, smelters or other works for the reduction of ores and necessary to their successful operation, including the right to take lands for the discharge and natural distribution of smoke, fumes, and dust, produced by the operation of works, provided that the powers granted by this section may not be exercised in any county where the population exceeds 20,000, or within one mile of the limits of any city or incorporated town nor unless the proposed condemner has the right to operate by purchase, option to purchase or easement, at least 75% in value of land acreage owned by persons or corporations situated within a radius of four miles from the mill, smelter or other works for the reduction of ores; nor beyond the limits of the four-mile radius; nor as to lands covered by contracts, easements, or agreements existing between the condemner and the owner of land within the limit and providing for the operation of such mill, smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores; nor until an action shall have been commenced to restrain the operation of such mill, smelter, or other works for the reduction of ores.

The right of eminent domain may not be exercised on behalf of the following uses:

except as provided in Subsection (2)(c)(iv), trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, equestrian use, or other recreational uses, or whose primary purpose is as a foot path, equestrian trail, bicycle path, or walkway;

a public park whose primary purpose is:

as a trail, path, or other way for walking, hiking, bicycling, or equestrian use; or

to connect other trails, paths, or other ways for walking, hiking, bicycling, or equestrian use; or

a public park established on real property that is:

a century farm; and

located in a county of the first class.

The right of eminent domain may not be exercised within a migratory bird production area created on or before December 31, 2020, under Title 23A, Chapter 13, Migratory Bird Production Area, except as follows:

subject to Subsection (4)(b), an electric utility may condemn land within a migratory bird production area located in a county of the first class only for the purpose of installing buried power lines;

an electric utility may condemn land within a migratory bird production area in a county other than a county of the first class to install:

buried power lines; or

a new overhead transmission line that is parallel to and abutting an existing overhead transmission line or collocated within an existing overhead transmission line right of way; or

the Department of Transportation may exercise eminent domain for the purpose of the construction of the West Davis Highway.

Before exercising the right of eminent domain under Subsection (4)(a)(i), the electric utility shall demonstrate that:

the proposed condemnation would not have an unreasonable adverse effect on the preservation, use, and enhancement of the migratory bird production area; and

there is no reasonable alternative to constructing the power line within the boundaries of a migratory bird production area.

If the intended public purpose is for a mining use, a private person may not exercise the power of eminent domain over property, or an interest in property, that is already used for a mining use within the boundary of:

a permit area, as defined in Section 40-8-4;

an area for which a permit has been issued by the Division of Water Quality, as part of the underground injection control program, under rules made by the Water Quality Board in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 3, Utah Administrative Rulemaking Act;

private property; or

an area under a state or federal lease.

For the purpose of solar evaporation ponds and other facilities for the recovery of minerals or elements in solution on or from the Great Salt Lake, a public use includes removal or extinguishment, by a state entity, in whole or in part, on Great Salt Lake Sovereign lands of:

a solar evaporation pond;

improvements, property, easements, or rights-of-way appurtenant to a solar evaporation pond, including a lease hold; or

other facilities for the recovery of minerals or elements in solution.

The public use under this Subsection (6) is in the furtherance of the benefits to public trust assets attributable to the Great Salt Lake under Section 65A-1-1.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 12 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 2011–2025 · leading case: Marion Energy, Inc. v. KFJ Ranch P'ship, 2011 UT 50 (Utah 2011).

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Marion Energy, Inc. v. KFJ Ranch P'ship, 2011 UT 50 (Utah 2011). · cites it 36× “The question presented in this case is which of these two meanings to ascribe to that term as it appears in the eminent domain statute, Utah Code section 78B-6-501(6). I respectfully dissent from the court's resolution of that question on the basis of a "canon" of narrow…”

Utah Dep't of Transp. v. Carlson, 2014 UT 24 (Utah 2014). · cites it 5× “And he urges, alternatively, that UDOT's expansive view would run afoul of the restrictions on the "public use" grounds for condemnation in the eminent domain statute, Utah Code section 78B-6-501. We find Carlson's construction untenable and thus endorse the reading advanced by…”

UDOT v. Coalt Inc., 2020 UT 58 (Utah 2020). · cites it 4× “” ¶26 Based upon these antecedent presumptions, Coalt first argues that UDOT lacks statutory authority to take Parcel 84.”

Gillmor v. Fam. Link, LLC, 284 P.3d 622 (Utah 2012). · cites it 2× “This statute has since been renumbered as section 78B-6-501. . Rule 11 enables parties to request the imposition of sanctions on another party.”

Outfront Media, LLC v. Salt Lake City Corp., 2017 UT 74 (Utah 2017). “In CBS's view, the provisions of Utah Code sections 78B-6-501 through 522 (the Eminent Domain Statutes), especially section 78B-6-504 's requirement of legislative approval of a taking, apply to the decision to deny a relocation request that triggers the requirement of just…”

Salt Lake City v. Kunz, 2020 UT App 139 (Utah Ct. App. 2020). · cites it 2× “Owners in turn filed an amended answer and therein asserted an affirmative defense that the City’s “claims [were] barred in that it failed to give the requisite notices required by Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-501, et seq.” Several years later, the City propounded a discovery request…”

Wild Country Holdings v. WE Five, 2025 UT App 54 (Utah Ct. App. 2025). · cites it 9× “Motion to Dismiss ¶19 In denying the motion to dismiss, the district court concluded that WE Five alleged both sufficient facts and a legal basis to support that Utah Code sections 78B-6-501 to -522 (the Eminent Domain Statutes) granted it eminent domain authority.”

Utah Dep't of Transp. v. Coalt Inc., 2016 UT App 169 (Utah Ct. App. 2016). · cites it 2× “See generally Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-501 (LexisNexis Supp.”

Rocky Mountain Power Inc. v. Randy E. Marriott, Edge Holdings LLC, 2018 UT App 221 (Utah Ct. App. 2018). · cites it 2× “" Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-501(8) (LexisNexis 2012).”

Salt Lake City Corp. v. Evans Dev. Grp., LLC, 2016 UT 15 (Utah 2016). “" Utax Cope § 78B-6-501(8)(F). 112 The City argues that these sections "provide express statutory authority".”

SLC Corp v. Evans Dev., 2016 UT 80 (Utah 2016). · cites it 6× “Evans argued that the condemnation was not for a public use as required by Utah Code section 78B-6-501, but merely for use as an exchange property, a use not enumerated in the statute.”

Jonsson v. PacifiCorp (D. Utah 2025). · cites it 2× “By failing to acknowledge and engage with this alternative, Plaintiffs “fall far short of meeting their heavy burden to overcome the presumption that the [GIA] is valid under the Utah Constitution.”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(2) — 1 case

Wild Country Holdings v. WE Five, 2025 UT App 54 (Utah Ct. App. 2025). “Motion to Dismiss ¶19 In denying the motion to dismiss, the district court concluded that WE Five alleged both sufficient facts and a legal basis to support that Utah Code sections 78B-6-501 to -522 (the Eminent Domain Statutes) granted it eminent domain authority.”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(2)(b) — 1 case

UDOT v. Coalt Inc., 2020 UT 58 (Utah 2020). “” ¶26 Based upon these antecedent presumptions, Coalt first argues that UDOT lacks statutory authority to take Parcel 84.”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(2)(c)(ii) — 1 case

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(2)(c)(v) — 1 case

UDOT v. Coalt Inc., 2020 UT 58 (Utah 2020). “” ¶26 Based upon these antecedent presumptions, Coalt first argues that UDOT lacks statutory authority to take Parcel 84.”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(2)(h) — 1 case

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(3)(f) — 1 case

SLC Corp v. Evans Dev., 2016 UT 80 (Utah 2016). “Evans argued that the condemnation was not for a public use as required by Utah Code section 78B-6-501, but merely for use as an exchange property, a use not enumerated in the statute.”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(6) — 1 case

Marion Energy, Inc. v. KFJ Ranch P'ship, 2011 UT 50 (Utah 2011). “The question presented in this case is which of these two meanings to ascribe to that term as it appears in the eminent domain statute, Utah Code section 78B-6-501(6). I respectfully dissent from the court's resolution of that question on the basis of a "canon" of narrow…”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(6)(a) — 1 case

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(6)(d) — 1 case

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(8) — 1 case

Rocky Mountain Power Inc. v. Randy E. Marriott, Edge Holdings LLC, 2018 UT App 221 (Utah Ct. App. 2018). “" Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-501(8) (LexisNexis 2012).”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(8)(F) — 1 case

Salt Lake City Corp. v. Evans Dev. Grp., LLC, 2016 UT 15 (Utah 2016). “" Utax Cope § 78B-6-501(8)(F). 112 The City argues that these sections "provide express statutory authority".”

— Utah Code § 78B-6-501(c)(ii) — 1 case

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.