Utah Inland Port Authority Releases 5-Year Business Plan

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Inland Port Authority has released its strategic business plan for its first 5 years of operations, but there are still a lot of questions and concerns over the controversial hub.

The Inland Port has long been touted as Utah’s largest economic development project, positioning Utah at the forefront of the supply chain, but opponents question the cost to the environment.

Jack Hedge, Executive Director of the Inland Port Authority described Thursday’s unveiling of the port’s strategic business plan as the starting point for the next 5 years.

“We are excited about this vision, we’re excited about this point, this is not a stopping point,” Hedge said.

“It will ensure that the backbone of our shared economy is strong, resilient. It will address the issues that we all care about the great Salt Lake air quality,” Hedge said. 

Port Authorities say they considered four options and settled on what they call scenario three, which allows them to use tax differential funds in developing a resilient eco-friendly hub. They said scenario four provides an ideal situation, with additional funding and additional authorities from the legislature.

 “We don’t need just anybody here, we need the right companies to grow and build at the port,” said James Rogers, UIPA Board Chair.

The port’s jurisdictional area is made up of about 16,000 acres In Salt Lake County’s northwest hub, where air, rail, and truck transportation routes converge.

“Positioning Utah at the forefront of this wave of change is the overarching strategic vision,” Hedge said.

Leaders say they want to build electric vehicle charging stations, participate in lights out Salt Lake, mitigate congestion with routing optimization, and avoid building new structures within 300 feet of high quality wetlands as examples of protecting the environment.

“That is one of our most vital natural resources and one of the most vital in the world,” said Hedge, referring to the ecosystem around the Great Salt Lake.

Officials point to their recent agreement with Rocky Mountain Power to create a sustainable energy supply within the area.

“There is a focus on logistics, on sustainable and smart supply chains that coincide with the triple bottom line approach that a lot of companies are taking where they’re balancing. People, with the planet, with profit,” Said Donald Ludlow, Vice President of CPCS, the consulting firm in charge of developing the strategic business plan. “It’s a new approach that is making sense financially as well as socially.

But the port’s opponents like Deeda Seed, of Stop the Polluting Port Coalition, aren’t buying the plan’s promise to make good on the environment.

“They spent $850K in taxpayer money to put these documents together that don’t answer the questions,” Seed said.

Seed says the plan fails to lay out exactly how congestion will be controlled, and air quality kept in check. “I was underwhelmed there was a great lack of specificity,” Seed said.

“The newly released plan is filled with a lot of words like ‘sustainable,’  ‘renewable energy,’ ‘zero-emissions,’ ‘clean technologies,’ and ‘monitoring,’  but otherwise gives us no actual information.  It gives us no reason to reconsider what has been obvious since the beginning. This inland port will bring a lot more pollution and dirty energy into the Salt Lake Valley, and is exactly the wrong direction for our economic future,” said Brian Moench, President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment in a statement following the plan’s release. 

But port leaders say the investment is essential, and point to the pandemic as an example of the importance of a strong supply chain.

 “I think we’ve seen that demonstrated over the last few months,” Hedge said.

The Business Plan will be formally presented to the Utah Inland Port Authority Board of Directors next Wednesday. The public can view the plan and submit their questions online at inlandportauthority.utah.gov.