Cars drive through the intersection of North Temple and 1000 West in the Fairpark neighborhood of Salt Lake City on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Details on municipal services and the development agreement on a district that Utah hopes will become home to a new Major League Baseball stadium have yet to be finalized. But with a state-imposed deadline of Dec. 31 to enter into a contract with the developer, Salt Lake City is hoping to check the boxes on residents’ wish lists.
Some concerns that neighbors on the city’s west side have expressed to their representatives on the Salt Lake City Council are possible unintended consequences of having a separate entity working as an authority to finance development in the area. Could the current structure potentially result in an indirect increase in citywide taxes?
Most recently, for example, the city’s Mosquito Abatement District suggested a 20% jump in its share of property taxes. That caused some residents to ask their councilors Alejandro Puy and Victoria Petro during a meeting Westside Coalition consultation as to whether the financial structures of independent authorities have any influence on the increase request.
The Inland Port Authority, which has a similar structure to the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District (UFAIR) authority, does not contribute to the Mosquito Abatement District’s budget despite benefiting from it, according to Puy.
“I want to make sure that when we talk about infrastructure, water, sewerage and maybe even mosquito control (…) are also taken into consideration,” Puy said Tuesday, “to make sure that other neighbors outside the city don’t necessarily subsidize. (which), in addition to the reinvestment of taxes. I want to ensure that we may not have to increase water taxes for every citizen in the city because of this project.”
Salt Lake City Attorney Katie Lewis, who presented an update on the potential development deal to the City Council, said that while public investment is not something the city should negotiate, “it is very important for Salt Lake City to think about how this district serves the public goals of the city because there is a public investment associated with it,” she said.
The city should also take steps to ensure the development agreement creates a process for infrastructure financing and development, Lewis said.
The district can provide growth, and the city should look at its budget to determine how more people can be served if the district’s additional property tax revenue does not go into the general fund. However, HB562that made the creation of the UFAIR District possible provides Salt Lake City with a mechanism to renegotiate some of those tax dollars for municipal services.
Starting in January, the UFAIR district will keep up to 75% of the area’s tax increment, Senior City Attorney Allison Parks told the City Council. And Salt Lake City will keep its property tax base, plus 25% of tax growth. However, the city is negotiating with the district to agree on more resources.
“The theory is that the additional percentage will also grow and increase as the district grows and increases, and as the demand for services grows and increases,” Parks said.
View of a riverwalk in the Power District, a 300-acre site bordering the Utah State Fairpark and the Jordan River. (Courtesy of the Larry H. Miller Company)
An agreement for 40 years
The Larry H. Miller Company, which is developing the district and bidding for a new professional baseball team, is voluntarily working with Salt Lake City to reach an agreement that could include public benefit, and “a process for continued city review regarding to public infrastructure that includes sewage, kitchen water, stormwater and roads,” Lewis said Tuesday.
Salt Lake City is negotiating a 40-year agreement with the Larry H. Miller Company, she added, prioritizing two public benefits in developing the 95-acre property.
The first is that 10% of the private land share is intended for open space. Whether that space is publicly or privately owned and operated, it must be open to the public. The second is a commitment to inclusivity and non-discrimination.
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Both the city and the Larry H. Miller Company are also committed to developing “key” housing units in the area, which would be accessible to a variety of income types, family sizes and the district’s workforce.
The Larry H. Miller Company could also gain other benefits from this partnership. Because many of the plans include views or uses of the Jordan River, Salt Lake City’s Department of Public Utilities has created a comprehensive table of uses from the river shoreline to the first 100 feet of the property.
If the development agreement is approved, other concessions could also be made regarding the protection of the airport’s flight paths, Lewis said.
“This property is fairly close to the Salt Lake City airport, and we have an ordinance for safety reasons that prevents certain types of buildings from being built to protect our flight paths,” she said. “We are in negotiations with the Larry H. Miller group about how what would happen if the FAA applies certain safety rules to the development and how we navigate building heights as they relate to what the FAA wants and our flight paths.”
The goal is to reach a final agreement that the council can officially consider at its Dec. 10 meeting, Lewis said.
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