Port board passes budget, sets up panel of advisors

Despite a temporary pause in September over public concern about the project and an ongoing feud with Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, the Utah Inland Port Authority Board resumed meeting late last month to further the process of establishing the mammoth Salt Lake City Northwest Quadrant facility. 

The primary action taken by the board was to pass a nearly $2 million budget to finance the procurement of a search firm to find an executive director and to hire an interim administrator, among other expenses. The initial budget is funded by $1.5 million in one-time funds provided by the state for port setup and $475,000 in one-time state funds set aside for economic development planning, a board release said. The board began its search for the tempory administrator with a job posting last week. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}

The group also voted to begin developing a business plan and established a technical committee to advise the board on issues relating to economic impact, environmental considerations, transportation planning and other issues related to the planning efforts. Appointments to the technical committee are likely to be made at the next board meeting and will include members from the Utah Department of Transportation; the Utah Department of Environmental Quality; the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute; the Wasatch Front Regional Council; and a person representing rural Utah oil, gas and mining interests.

“The inland port is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure Utah’s place as a center of commerce for the western United States,” said Derek Miller, chairman of the Utah Inland Port Authority Board. “The first step in creating a successful project is to build a successful organization, and today we took steps to ensure that success. The board and the public need to understand the impact an inland port could have on our community, our economy and our environment, and today we took the first steps in a process to address those important questions,” Miller, who is also CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, continued.

The board also discussed ways of involving the public in the ongoing board discussions. Among other openness actions, the board made recordings of its meetings available to the public on the Port Authority website, utahinlandport.org.

The Utah Inland Port is a huge, planned logistics and distribution hub to be built in northwest Salt Lake City along I-80 between 5600 West and 8000 West. The original legislation called for nearly 24,000 acres to be set aside for the project but the size was later pared back to about 19,000 acres. Planners envision cargo arriving in Utah from West Coast seaports via truck or rail. From there, the cargo would either be stored in planned warehousing at the port or processed and distributed to its final destination. Similar ports have been established in Kansas City, Missouri; and Greenville, South Carolina.

The port was established by the Utah Legislature last year and has been the center of controversy because of opposition to the legislative action, led by Biskupski, who feels that lawmakers usurped city authority over land use and tax benefits.{/mprestriction}