Salt Lake City Council members unanimously signed off on a contract Tuesday that will outline how the city and the Utah Inland Port Authority will get along in the long run.
The agreement comes after years of conflict and paves the way for more transparency and collaboration between the port authority and Utah’s capital.
“This is a milestone we’ve been working toward since I became the mayor, really,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said, “which takes us out of the year-to-year legislative washing machine that has opened a can of worms and has been overall a detrimental cycle for the city in terms of security around the future of the port and our tax increment dollars.”
Under the pact, the port authority will be more transparent with its budget and pay to study the project’s effect on human health, traffic and the community. The city will also get input on how the port will ease its impact on the environment and surrounding neighborhoods.
The port authority board approved the contract at its meeting earlier Tuesday.
“A lot of listening, thoughtful contemplation and hard work went into this,” the port authority’s recently installed executive director, Ben Hart, said in a news release. “We believe it gives the port authority a clear path forward to create a comprehensive Northwest Quadrant Master Development Plan and assures the city their concerns will be addressed as well.”
Tuesday’s accord is the product of a mandate from state lawmakers, who overhauled the port authority’s leadership, tinkered with its funding structure and required it to codify how it would move forward with Salt Lake City.
Before making those changes, the port authority was entitled to 75% of the city’s property tax revenue in the northwest quadrant, could spend its money however it wanted, and operated with little oversight. The body had no requirement to follow the public procurement process and operated with virtually no input from Salt Lake City.
The relationship between the city and the port has historically been so contentious that the city sued, arguing the formation of the port authority was unconstitutional. In June, the Utah Supreme Court ruled the port authority lawful and legitimate.
Under the new funding structure, the port authority’s share of the city’s property taxes starts to phase out, with payments ending after 2047.
The port will spend 40% of the money it gets from city taxes on mitigating environmental impacts and another 40% on easing the effects on neighborhoods.
Studies on health, the community and traffic are due to be completed by third-party firms by the end of next year. They will guide spending on environmental and community improvements.
