West Weber project area will help fulfill county's vision for '50 years-plus'

Brice Wallace 

Approval of part of western Weber County as an inland port project area can help the county realize its vision there for the next half-century, the Utah Inland Port Authority board heard recently.

During a board meeting earlier this month, Stephanie Russell, economic development director for Weber County, said the county sees the port “as a resource” for the proposed West Weber project area, totaling about 9,000 acres.

“They are one of our tools that we will be using to create this vision, enact this vision, and this vision is not a temporary, 10-to-five-year vision,” Russell told the board. “This is a fifty-year-plus vision.

“We’re in we’re in desperate need of putting in sustainable infrastructure, particularly as it relates to water and sewer. The port has resources and they have funding mechanisms that will enable us to put in the right type of infrastructure in the area so that we can make sure that we have environmentally friendly and sustainable growth in that industrial core as well as the residential pieces that will be going into that area as well.”

The UIPA board will consider approving the site as an inland port at its next meeting March 26. Board policy calls for proposed port areas to be presented at one meeting and then be up for approval at the following meeting.

The Weber County Commission has adopted a resolution requesting the establishment of the West Weber project area, which would be the state’s ninth port area, because of the potential for new jobs, a boost to the local economy, access to state and federal resources, and assisting with the development of the West Weber Industrial District and Renewable Energy Hub.

The proposed area is east of Promontory Point, near the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake and consists of two zones: the Little Mountain zone mostly north of the Union Pacific rail line and 900 South and west of 6700 West; and the Weber Bend zone north of the UP rail line and generally east of 6150 West straddling 900 South.

UIPA documents indicate that economic development incentives would generally favor advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defense, distribution and logistics, data centers and renewable energy.

Russell said the West Weber corridor has been studied for decades and that much of the proposed project area properties have been zoned for manufacturing, some of them for five decades. Creation of a port is in line with the county’s vision for smart growth, she said.

“Weber County has a vision in this area of creating not just jobs and not just pad-ready sites,” she said. “That’s an antiquated approach to economic development and it’s something that we do not practice here in the county.”

Instead, the county envisions advanced manufacturing in an industrial district and renewable energy hub.

“We’re very, very interested in being one of the leaders in sustainability in the state as well as the region,” she said. “We have been working very closely with our partners in renewable energy and our partners on the state level and on the federal level, to create opportunities to bring in very unique types of businesses.”

The county is “not desperate” but instead is “determined,” she added.

“We’re determined to create an environment out there that is work-friendly, that has public amenities, that has affordable housing and that has an opportunity to make a significant impact on the carbon footprint,” she said.

Chris Roybal, executive director of the Northern Utah Economic Alliance, a partnership of Davis and Weber counties, said the alliance has been working on the West Weber area for the past three-plus years.

“We’re excited to see the opportunity to have the port join up with our team [and] leverage our resources,” Roybal said. “Everybody knows that economic development is a team sport, so we need all of leverage and expertise that we can get to make this happen.”

Existing rail is underused in the West Weber area, he said. “We’re still entertaining a high level of advanced manufacturers and other industrial users that would come to that site,” he said.

Currently, Northern Utah companies “don’t have a lot of places to go to either expand their business or grow in our area. And, as you all know, companies need real estate, they need people, so this site is unique in Northern Utah. We have a basically a blank canvas to really do it the right way….” Roybal said.

“We’re excited to see the port join our team, Weber County and the rest of the resources in Northern Utah, to make this an economically viable area in the state,” he said.

The proposed project area is along the Great Salt Lake and has waterfowl management areas at its north and south ends. Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Division of Natural Resources, told the UIPA board that the stakeholders can work together to meet their goals.

“I think done properly, we can see positive outcomes,” Ferry said. “We can see each other working hand-in-hand, arm-and-arm, to come up with a proper long-term plan that is as minimally invasive on the Great Salt Lake.”

Such a plan would be “as minimally invasive and impactful to the Great Salt Lake, but also allowing this development to go forward,” he said. “I think there is a sweet spot.”

Long-term planning is preferred over “having just a hodgepodge of development occur in some of these areas,” he added. A balance can produce an environment that is sustainable and beneficial to the natural resources but also to the business needs that exist in the state, he said.

“There is a balance that can be struck, and we look at ourselves as partners in that and helping achieve those goals,” Ferry said.

If approved, the West Weber would join eight other project areas in the state: an area in Salt Lake County, including in the Northwest Quadrant of Salt Lake City and parts of West Valley City and Magna; the Iron Springs Inland Port near Cedar City; the Verk Industrial Park project area in Spanish Fork; the Golden Spike project area in Garland, Tremonton, Brigham City and other parts of Box Elder County; the Central Utah Agri-Park in three parts of Juab County; the Mineral Mountains project area, consisting of four zones in Beaver County in parts of Beaver City, Beaver County and Milford City; the Tooele Valley area; and the Twenty Wells area in Grantsville in Tooele County.