Peace with SLC important for port's future

Brice Wallace 

The reset of the Utah Inland Port Authority continues, this time addressing how to get along with Salt Lake City.

Both the authority board and the Salt Lake City Council/Redevelopment Agency have approved an agreement that spells out the use of certain property tax differential revenue from the port for environmental and community mitigation{mprestriction ids="1,3"}; calls for studies of the environmental, traffic and community impacts of port development; and requires the redevelopment agency to spend 10 percent of the property tax it receives on affordable housing.

The interlocal agreement was required in legislation passed earlier this year.

The relationship between the port authority and city has sometimes been bitter and focused on land-use authority, tax matters and the makeup of the authority’s board. It led to litigation about the port’s constitutionality and use of some of the city’s property taxes. The Utah Supreme Court ruled in June that the port’s formation did not violate state law and sided with the port on the issue of the city’s financial claims.

At a recent board meeting when the agreement resolution was adopted, Miles Hansen, the board’s chairman, described the agreement as “framework” that allows the entities to “move forward in a way that balances the needs of the community and stakeholders really across the state.”

He added that the entities can work together “to think deeply and to execute on our shared vision” of optimizing development in the city’s Northwest Quadrant “that is going to be good for generations of Salt Lake City residents and Utah citizens as well.”

“It’s hard to overstate the importance of this interlocal agreement,” Ben Hart, the authority’s executive director, said. “As I came into this position and certainly I know as the new board became seated, making sure we had a good, productive working relationship with Salt Lake City was Priority No. 1.”

The agreement, he said, dictates how and when the city portion of tax differential will be accrued and how it will be spent.

The studies related to community, health and traffic impacts will be incorporated into the authority’s master plan, with consultation from the city. “This framework and this interlocal agreement really become the foundation for that partnership and how we move forward,” Hart said.

“This is an important step,” said authority board member Mike Schultz, who is the House majority leader in the Legislature. Without the agreement, he said, the money at issue returns to the inland port board to use as it sees fit.

“This sets up the parameters in an agreement on how the money is spent to address environmental mitigation inside the inland port itself and the surrounding community. … I think we’re all better working together than going down our own paths,” Schultz said.

Like the authority board, the city council adopted the agreement resolution unanimously.

“I’m thankful that we have something that stabilizes us and does not make us subject to every legislative session with changing winds,” said Victoria Petro-Eschler, Salt Lake City councilmember and port authority board member. “This gives us something to anchor to, it gives us something to enforce around, it gives us something that allows us to say, in black and white, ‘This is what our protections are.’”

Councilmember Alejandro Puy said the city cannot stop the port development — “We already tried that,” he said — but without the agreement, “it’s going to continue without any control.”

“This contract gives the city some protections,” Puy said. “Yes, those protections might not be all we want. We might want all the protections and all the land authority. … That is not part of the conversation right now. This contract protects us. Yes, it’s not ideal [but] I think that this moves our city to a closer place, to a place where we can actually start working together ….”

Councilmember Amy Fowler agreed. “Like Councilmember Puey said, sure, we wish this would have gone a lot of different ways, but we’re here,” Fowler said.

Councilmember Chris Wharton recounted some of the history of the port and its relationship with the city.

“I can honestly say that, from all of the meetings, all of the conversations, all of the lobbying that the city has done, and all of the litigating that the city has done on this issue, this feels like an opportunity for a new day for us on the port,” Wharton said.

The agreement and the studies it contains “are going to go a long way in helping us shape this in a much more positive direction than it started out five years ago,” he said.

The port authority has seen many changes this year, including those related to changes on the port authority board, a new authority executive director, alterations or eliminations of existing contracts, and a process to create a master plan for the authority’s 1,600-acre jurisdictional area in the Northwest Quadrant.{/mprestriction}