"Some crazy lady was going to all the town hall meetings saying she was going to sue the city and the city council if they didn’t let it pass."

I saw that on the video recording. It highlights how ignorant many citizens are about the process, regardless of how much they FEEL about it.

The whole debacle did seem very emotionally charged by both sides of the argument. In terms of the developer, I wouldn't put that effort past him as I thought he had to be a complete idiot not to do the due diligence of the city's laws, bi-laws, and, in this case, BLUE laws before dropping the investment he did. When buying personal property, it is common practice to "check" things out. I avoided building on the fault line in Steeple Chase a few years ago when I checked with Draper City why I had a "no build" line running through the potential lot. I could not believe he went all in and went to the lengths he did after the fact.

I personally don't care about alcohol sales either way, but common sense is common sense. Just location-wise (a cornered city in the L-shape of the mountains), I don't see many coming from OUT of Highland to Highland to dine, no matter what. It just seems like a horrible real estate choice for commercial.

That said, though, it was just a census. City Council does have to keep open commerce in mind. It is citizens' responsibility to make sure their voices are heard by participating, no matter what. If you had a strong opinion about it, there is no way you didn't know about the census, how they were going to conduct it, and the deadline. That boils down to personal responsibility.

The whole thing to me was completely silly. But that doesn't matter. The process does.