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(1)
(a) Each municipality adopting a land use ordinance shall, by ordinance, establish one or more appeal authorities.
(b) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a) shall hear and decide:
(i) requests for variances from the terms of land use ordinances;
(ii) appeals from land use decisions applying land use ordinances; and
(iii) appeals from a fee charged in accordance with Section 10-9a-510.
(c) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a) may not hear an appeal from the enactment of a land use regulation.
(2) As a condition precedent to judicial review, each adversely affected party shall timely and specifically challenge a land use authority's land use decision, in accordance with local ordinance.
(3) An appeal authority described in Subsection (1)(a):
(a) shall:
(i) act in a quasi-judicial manner; and
(ii) serve as the final arbiter of issues involving the interpretation or application of land use ordinances; and
(b) may not entertain an appeal of a matter in which the appeal authority, or any participating member, had first acted as the land use authority.
(4) By ordinance, a municipality may:
(a) designate a separate appeal authority to hear requests for variances than the appeal authority the municipality designates to hear appeals;
(b) designate one or more separate appeal authorities to hear distinct types of appeals of land use authority decisions;
(c) require an adversely affected party to present to an appeal authority every theory of relief that the adversely affected party can raise in district court;
(d) not require a land use applicant or adversely affected party to pursue duplicate or successive appeals before the same or separate appeal authorities as a condition of an appealing party's duty to exhaust administrative remedies; and
(e) provide that specified types of land use decisions may be appealed directly to the district court.
(5) If the municipality establishes or, prior to the effective date of this chapter, has established a multiperson board, body, or panel to act as an appeal authority, at a minimum the board, body, or panel shall:
(a) notify each of the members of the board, body, or panel of any meeting or hearing of the board, body, or panel;
(b) provide each of the members of the board, body, or panel with the same information and access to municipal resources as any other member;
(c) convene only if a quorum of the members of the board, body, or panel is present; and
(d) act only upon the vote of a majority of the convened members of the board, body, or panel.