After a briefing about the work and goals of the Utah Inland Port Authority, members of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board came away impressed but also concerned that the authority’s messages are hitting a wall.
The board’s November meeting featured a long discussion about the port. Jack Hedge, the authority’s executive director, spelled out its importance and needs, but at the end, a couple of board members suggested better public relations or communications would improve the public’s understanding of the importance of developing the logistics network.
“I’m trying to promote this to people, because I think that there’s still a lot of hair on the inland port as far as perception,” said board chairman Carine Clark. “Maybe there’s some work we can do from a public relations standpoint. …”
Board member Margaret Jacobs said “it’s very misunderstood, particularly on the environmental side.”
“I’ve only heard the negative side and after listening to you,” she told Hedge, “I feel really enthusiastic about not only the potential of the port but really to take the lead in terms of environmental management and maybe reversing some of the bad environmental trends in the state.”
Hedge said the authority is building a communications strategy.
One hallmark of the early months of the authority has been opposition from port opponents. Their criticisms have ranged from taxing authority to air pollution concerns, from impacts on wildlife habitat to traffic congestion.
“They’re making a lot of noise, but it’s a really small group,” Hedge said of the protesters. The amount of opposition to the port “has really come down” and become more focused, he said. Some of the issues raised by protesters are legitimate and need to be addressed, and the authority has addressed them in its planning, he said. They include the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy, having low-impact development techniques for buildings, dark sky-compliant lighting, and creating a community advisory group to understand the impacts on the western Salt Lake City area.
“We’re going to go out and do the right thing,” Hedge said. “Will protesters ever not be around? Probably not, but we’re going to do the right thing.”
While a large area near the Salt Lake City International Airport will be developed as part of the logistics network, it will not be the only location. Hedge suggested thinking of the port not as a place but as a network or system. At the time of the GOED board meeting, about a dozen locations in the state had expressed an interest in becoming part of it. Hedge said “way more” likely will do so but cautioned that the locations will not be in competition.
“Some of them will be big inland ports, some of them may be small inland sidings or truck parks or small rail yards. It depends,” he said. “ But it’s all over the state and it will be multiple locations. … We will work with any jurisdiction anywhere in the state to help develop that network.”
That network will strive to improve the fluidity, volume and velocity of goods movement among airplanes, trains and trucks into, out of and through Utah, capitalizing on the state’s unique position as the “Crossroads of the West.”
“We are the funnel for all goods movement in America,” Hedge said, noting that about 40 percent of the U.S. GDP flows through Utah as goods move from three West Coast ports to eastern U.S. consumers and back the other direction.
Already, 36 percent of Utah GDP comes from logistics dependent industries — that’s about $60 billion — and those industries account for 647,000 jobs, or 33 percent of Utah workers, and 36 percent of wages paid in the state.
“And it’s only going to grow over time,” Hedge said. “So dealing with it now, getting involved now and engaged now and helping to plan what that looks like going forward and how we take the most advantage of it going forward, it’s critically important that we do it now, because it’s going to double over the next 25 years. So it is the lifeblood of our economy in Utah and the nation’s economy.”
Goods movement must become more efficient and done in “a more intelligent, more intentional and more sustainable manner going forward,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of fear about the environmental impact of increased goods movement through our state — whether it be traffic, whether it be air pollution, whether it be impacts on those habitat areas around the Great Salt Lake — and those impacts and those worries and those fears are statewide,” Hedge said.
“We have a unique opportunity in Utah, as we build out the logistics network and the logistics system in Utah, that we do it in a very smart and intentional manner so that we’re not recreating the bad practices of the past.”