Sales tax revenue. Looser requirements for board members. The power to buy more land.
These are the concessions Utah lawmakers gave Point of the Mountain and its governing body, the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority (POMSLA), in the 2024 legislative session.
A bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on March 13 amends the rules by which POMSLA abides — changes that advocates said will help usher The Point into the future now that the state prison is gone and development is beginning on the mixed-use community in Draper.
“This is the next step in our efforts to move Point of the Mountain forward,” Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, said in a bill presentation on the Senate floor last month. Stevenson is also on the Point of the Mountain board.
The final version of the bill allows POMSLA to collect 50% — down from an initial proposal of 64% — of state sales tax generated from future businesses that operate at The Point, in order to repay bonds the authority uses to fund the project. Once those bonds are paid off, the authority will stop collecting those tax revenues, according to the bill.
The new rule also “modifies the definition of point of the mountain state land,” as the bill’s text says, to allow POMSLA to buy more land, as long as it is adjacent to the roughly 700 acres the state already owns.
Lawmakers said there is untapped opportunity in some of the neighboring land parcels. Those parcels could now fall under POMSLA’s jurisdiction — and tax district — should the state choose to buy any of them.
Lawmakers also agreed that living or doing business in The Point does not conflict with someone’s ability to serve on The Point board.
Stevenson said relaxing qualifications for board members will allow people with valuable perspectives to participate — people like current board member and Draper Mayor Troy Walker. Draper is The Point’s host city, and should therefore have a seat at the table, Stevenson said. The amended rule will let Walker and other board members lease land and do business within The Point.
It’s a lesson Stevenson said he learned from the Inland Port Authority — another board on which Stevenson serves. Early Port Authority rules barred anyone who owned land within 5 miles of project property from serving on the board, to defend against possible conflicts of interest.
“It kept a lot of good people from sitting on that board,” Stevenson said in a February committee meeting.
The biggest addition to Point rules under the new bill is a new section to Utah code that “provides more detail” about POMSLA’s ability to issue bonds. The new rule specifies that POMSLA cannot issue bonds until it defines the parameters of the bond in a formal resolution, and submits those parameters to the State Finance Review Commission for review. Once issued, the board can use any income generated from Point projects to repay bonds and interest.
The rule makes Point bonds tax exempt and allows POMSLA to purchase its own bonds “at a price that the board determines.”
The bill passed in the Legislature with little fanfare or friction, except for some debate on how much sales tax revenue POMSLA will collect. An amendment decreased the amount to 50%, and specified that the authority will stop collecting tax revenue once its debts are settled.
The Point was also granted a one-time, $50 million allowance in the 2024-25 budget for a transit stop. Plans for the development include a FrontRunner station.
Developers will begin installing key infrastructure and amenities for The Point’s first phase this spring. The project will include an “innovation hub,” a downtown area and housing units.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
