PROVO — When Steven Tyler and his wife, Linda, bought a piece of property at Wildwood Resort in Provo Canyon in 1983, the remote area seemed like a peaceful place to retire.
But now that the couple is ready to rebuild a previously destroyed cabin that occupied their property before the winter of 1983, it seems that they face a legal fight.
The Tylers filed a lawsuit in March against Utah County, hoping to reverse a decision made by the Utah County Board of Adjustment that prohibits the couple from building on their property.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed in 4th District Court in Provo, the Tylers have asked to be compensated $150,000 — the estimated worth of the cabin if it were rebuilt — for the county's decision.
However, the lawsuit also asks the court to order Utah County to approve the Tyler family's application for a building permit for their property.
Steven Tyler says he's not interested in receiving any money. He wants to build his cabin.
"Gee, all I want to do is use our piece of property up there to build a cabin on it," Tyler said. "I'm not interested in undoing laws for other people or anything like that. I have a very singular focus, and I'd like to build a cabin in Provo Canyon."
The Tylers' property lies in a critical environment zone in county territory, and construction is prohibited in Wildwood. The couple say they could have rebuilt the cabin within a year after it was first destroyed by heavy snow, but now that more than 20 years have passed, Utah County is saying the Tylers have lost their chance.
"(Utah County) has an ordinance that provides if a cabin is burned, or if a property is burned and is not rebuilt within one year then they can't rebuild it, and I don't think that serves any public purpose," said Dayle Jeffs, the Tylers' attorney. "What difference does it make if it was built back in '83 or built now?"
The county's response to the lawsuit, which was filed in court Wednesday by attorney Peter Stirba, who is representing Utah County in this case, denies that the Tylers' building permit was rejected solely because they did not immediately rebuild.
But in his response to the lawsuit, Stirba, who did not return a Deseret Morning News request for comment, does not elaborate on other reasons the permit was denied.
The Wildwood Resort was first established in 1906, before Utah County enacted its land-use ordinances in 1942, the lawsuit claims. The Tylers say several other cabins in the resort have been rebuilt since the environmental restriction took effect and now they're seeing a double standard.
According to the lawsuit, a building permit was granted in 1983 to a family who waited several years to rebuild their burned-down cabin.
In 1995, another permit was granted to a family whose cabin had been uninhabitable and in ruin for a number of years, the lawsuit says.
"This is the only lot (in the Wildwood Resort) that doesn't have a cabin on it," said Jeffs.
Stirba, in the response, says the county is "without sufficient information ... with respect to the allegations ... and therefore denies the same."
The Tylers applied in 2006 to rebuild their cabin, but one month after the application to rebuild was submitted, the Utah County zoning administrator denied approval, saying the property's non-conforming use had expired.
"If we had been aware of the one-year rule, I think that would have influenced our decision to buy the property or not," Tyler said. "It's right next door to my mother-in-law's cabin, which is why we bought it in the first place, but we bought it years before we anticipated building on it."
Tyler says if he and his wife are allowed to rebuild on their property, they will live in it year-round. The couple are living with relatives since they don't own a home of their own and their plans to build have been put on hold.
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com