[0:00] We have a quorum. We're ready to start. We're here at the Capitol. Representative Cutler and

[0:06] Senator Stevenson and I are all here in a quorum. Obviously, we have Victoria as well, and I think

[0:14] we're going to be joined by Jonathan here in a little bit, so we'll announce him when he comes.

[0:21] Public comment will start at approximately 1045. If you would like to speak, Diana is waving her hand

[0:29] right now. You have to fill out a comment card and then she will put it in the queue.

[0:35] All right, first order of business is the approval of the August 4th, 2026 Ford meeting.

[0:42] Ford members, you've had a chance to look at those minutes if I can get a motion and a second

[0:47] on the approval of those minutes. Hold on, Paulier. There we go.

[0:52] To approve those minutes.

[0:54] Thank you, Representative Cutler.

[0:56] I would second.

[0:57] Thank you, Senator Stevenson.

[0:59] All in favor, please say aye.

[1:01] Aye.

[1:03] I'll rule that motion passes unanimously.

[1:06] All right, Ben.

[1:07] We're going to go to you for the executive director report.

[1:11] All right.

[1:11] Madam Chair and members of the board and members of the public.

[1:14] Thank you for being with us today.

[1:16] We so appreciate your interest in what the Port Authority is doing

[1:19] and ultimately how we can all work together to make the state better.

[1:24] So, Madam Chair, I'll keep my report brief,

[1:27] but I've got a couple of items to just make the public aware of.

[1:30] First, I do want to note just for administrative purposes, Victoria Petro, who has served as

[1:38] a dedicated board member for four years now, has been reappointed by the Salt Lake City Council.

[1:43] And so she will remain continuing her service on the board, which we appreciate.

[1:48] Also for those who we did get some questions in terms of the timing of the new project

[1:55] area up in Davis County. We are pushing that project area off. That's not without precedent.

[2:01] We've done that before. We just want to make sure we get everything right and consider

[2:05] everybody's opinion before moving forward with that project area.

[2:10] To the items that were noted on the agenda, let me just first say to our friends who've come from

[2:16] Twilla and welcome Mr. Friedman. To our friends who have come from Twilla, thank you for being here.

[2:21] here. Thank you for your interest and being involved in the port process. There's one

[2:28] thing we always promise, which is we're not going to try and slam anything through.

[2:32] We try and be very thoughtful and take a balanced approach with public comment before

[2:37] we ever act. But I do want to speak to the large energy user projects update, which speaks

[2:44] to data centers. I think that's the reason a lot of folks are here and interested, specifically

[2:50] the data center in Twilla Valley. Let me just first say we do not have anything on our agenda

[2:56] today that the board will consider that has anything to do with supporting a data center

[3:02] in Twilla Valley. On the contrary, not only do we not have anything on this agenda, but it's

[3:08] possible and even likely that we will never have anything on our agenda to consider for that project

[3:14] area. With changes in state law, specifically HB 507, there's going to be new processes that are

[3:21] developed, and ultimately, it could very well be that the Utah England Port Authority never takes

[3:27] any action to support that project. So I just want to make sure that the public is aware of that,

[3:33] knows what's going on. We have the same concerns that the public does, which are related to the

[3:39] natural resources into Willa Valley. I think we can say until those concerns are addressed.

[3:45] I don't know that we have an interest moving forward. The other thing I would say though is

[3:49] the county is not ready to move it forward either. They continue with a moratorium and I appreciate

[3:55] those who signed on to the letter that was submitted to us this morning. We have provided that to our

[3:59] board. We appreciate those who have possibly put that letter together. Part of that letter

[4:05] asked that the board and the port not move forward until the county figures out the zoning

[4:10] and permitting related to that project. You have our 100% commitment. We can't take

[4:18] action with the board because we did not notice something 24 hours, but certainly as the

[4:23] executive director, we are not bringing anything to our board until we get a very clear green

[4:29] light from any community that we're working with.

[4:32] So aside from the issues that I've already raised in terms of whether that will ever come to our board or not

[4:38] We will never bring anything to our board unless we know that the community is okay with it

[4:43] Very clearly Twill of Alley Twill of County is signaling they are not okay with it

[4:49] And thus we are not okay with it. So we are not going to be moving anything forward until we know that a local community is okay with it

[4:58] But we do realize the state of Utah is looking at this policy as well.

[5:03] We've also received an executive order from the governor and from last session the HB507

[5:11] gave us pretty clear direction on the regionally significant development zones as well.

[5:16] I know that's a lot of wonk and I apologize for that, but we are not going to be acting in

[5:21] a way that is not in accordance with the governor's desires, with the legislative desires and

[5:27] and ultimately how do we accommodate and balance

[5:31] the requests that are coming in

[5:33] with protecting our natural resources as well.

[5:36] So I just wanted to mention that,

[5:37] make sure that we are on the record

[5:39] and very clear about how the Port views that project

[5:42] and moving forward.

[5:44] I also want to, and this is related to the second item,

[5:46] but I also want to assure the public,

[5:48] we're listening, especially on concerns related to

[5:50] the wetlands and the natural resources

[5:53] around the Great Salt Lake.

[5:55] We so appreciate those who have been willing

[5:57] to come in and provide feedback on our natural resources policy.

[6:02] We got a lot of feedback in the last little bit.

[6:05] As such, I just want to make the public aware.

[6:06] We want to respond to all of the feedback that we got.

[6:09] We're taking all of those comments very seriously, even the ones that may be not over any practical.

[6:15] We're taking everything seriously.

[6:17] As such, we're not going to move the natural resources policy forward in this meeting.

[6:21] We're going to give it a little bit more time just to make sure that we are listening to

[6:25] public and we don't want to rush something through ultimately that would prohibit or not

[6:32] strike the right balance. So that item has been pushed off as well. We anticipate and hope

[6:37] that it will be in October, but if we need to wait another month to get it right as well,

[6:41] we'll do that as well. I do want to thank the public for the letters they've submitted. They're thoughtful.

[6:46] They're well crafted. We saw 1106 signatures on the last 1100 signatures on this one. That

[6:53] That means something does, and we're going to take that seriously.

[6:56] So thank you for putting in time and effort to help us understand where you're at and

[6:59] your positions.

[7:01] And Madam Chair, with that, that is our, my executive director's report.

[7:04] Thanks Ben, appreciate it.

[7:05] All right, let's move on with the agenda, Ariane.

[7:08] I think we'll turn some time on to you online to give us a quarterly budget update.

[7:14] Great.

[7:14] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[7:15] Are you able to see my presentation, great.

[7:22] I am presenting to you the quarterly budget update.

[7:26] This is as of June 30th, which is the end of the fiscal year.

[7:31] We wanted to kind of walk you through this.

[7:33] We're currently working with the state auditor's office on our annual financial statement audit.

[7:39] But this is the update we'll provide you.

[7:42] So, as you can see on the revenue side, we are at about 101% of the revenues we're right

[7:51] on par with where our final approved budget landed us.

[7:56] Most of our property tax differential coming in at $36 million, the majority of that is

[8:03] from the Northwest Quadrant Project area, although we've seen it coming from a couple of

[8:09] other project areas this last year as well.

[8:12] We continue to see some interest income on the funds that we have sitting in our account

[8:20] held with the Public Treasures and Bussman Fund, and then we've seen some sales tax

[8:25] revenues come in for the poorest, well, across the poor project areas.

[8:32] On the expenditures side, you can see that total expenditures came in at 91% of what we had

[8:38] budgeted, leaving us with an overall, an overall excess of revenues of 6.7 million.

[8:48] The majority of our expenditures align to the tax sharing agreements and incentives.

[8:56] We also have about 4.6 million for salaries and expenditures and the 4.5 million here for

[9:06] service is specifically related to the leases that we have, we have a separate set of financial

[9:12] statements for the crossroads, the crossroads, public infrastructure district where long proceeds

[9:20] are being used.

[9:23] Moving on, I wanted to highlight the vendor payments list that we provide the board

[9:28] that has been provided to you as well.

[9:33] Just a few highlights there.

[9:37] We have, we had our large expense for the fiscal year related to the settlement of lawsuit.

[9:46] GB South Industrial Inc is for the, one of the land leases we have in the Northwest Quadrant.

[9:54] We had a larger expenditure this year to HB Workplaces for the completion of the second half

[10:02] of our office and the furniture investment that we made there.

[10:06] Mandano Holdings here, this payment is related to the lake shore learning process and the

[10:21] As $15.5 million is related to the payments to an immigrant management for the remediation

[10:29] of the crash roads project on the old North Temple, Leonville.

[10:37] We also have money flow through to Salt Lake City Corporation, $5.6 million, and SNL

[10:45] IOV is another one of our releases.

[10:48] You can see here the $5 million that we pass through to the Department of Natural Resources.

[10:56] As the board agreed to use some of those Salt Lake City funds for, and then the Burke

[11:01] Industrial Public Fund for Structure District is done in the Spanish Work Area, and that's

[11:06] a texturing agreement that we have with them that they utilize to help pay the bond that

[11:13] they've received proceeds for and are building the infrastructure needed down in that project area.

[11:20] With that, I will turn it back for any questions that the Board may have for me.

[11:26] Thanks, Arianne. I don't see any questions. Appreciate your presentation. Amy, let's turn some time

[11:32] for you. What will you turn on for sure, but in so I know which one you're on? 15.

[11:39] Give us the

[11:40] for policies. I will be brief today, our AIB policy, which is up for its annual review.

[11:49] It was last reviewed in October of 2025. We don't have any draft changes this time, but we do

[11:57] anticipate at the October board meeting bringing some additional changes. It's specifically to the

[12:05] requirements around SB 206 and the use of tax increment and disclosures, as you will

[12:12] see in our future agenda item on the presentation we started to perform that in those requirements.

[12:21] As we are discussing the changes needed for the AIB policy, it makes sense to add some

[12:27] additional enhancements around how the loans are approved and reviewed, specifically if they're

[12:34] stopped by tax increment. So we are looking to have the tax differential committee also review

[12:40] those loans when we know that is going to be a component of it. We'll also plan on in the

[12:46] October meeting, just bringing forth our project area tax differential policy again while it's not

[12:52] up for its annual review again because of SB206. We want to make some enhancements and make sure that

[12:56] we add clarity around those obligations or the use of tax increment. So I will pause there and if there's

[13:02] any questions? I'm happy to answer from the board.

[13:07] All right. Thanks Amy. I don't see any questions from the board.

[13:11] Stephanie, let's talk about the proposed white rock pit.

[13:16] You're going to have a few guests, so we'll turn on all the lights up there.

[13:26] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[13:27] Here. Can you hear me better now? Yep. Great.

[13:34] I'm excited today to be talking about the first

[13:38] presentation of our right white rock PID for Willard City. This is just a presentation. There

[13:45] will be no board action today, but I wanted to talk a little bit about this PID. I invited

[13:54] representatives from Willard City, as well as from Milstream Partners, the developer and landowner

[14:00] of this area. And we're excited to talk through what we anticipate coming. First off,

[14:08] I wanted to note a discrepancy in the board packet. I adjusted the total amount of the infrastructure

[14:17] required for the bonds that will be issued by this PID. We have gone through and analyzed what

[14:25] what infrastructure will be required to help build out this 178 acre industrial development

[14:32] in Willard City. This area is located strategically in between I-15 and the UP rail line

[14:40] and is perfectly situated for industrial development. There are two interchanges on either side of

[14:51] this property. And we're really excited about the potential for Willard City to really focus and

[14:58] create a job center for their...

[15:00] Community. Traditionally, Willard City has been largely residential and a farming community. This allows them to diversify their economy and provide some much needed jobs within that city. We also run and recognize that this is a strategic location for industrial projects as it sits perfectly in between the Boxelder County and Weber County labor sheds for an economic development project.

[15:29] you really couldn't pick a better location.

[15:33] I want to mention that we will be utilizing this PID

[15:38] to pay for water and sewer infrastructure, road improvements, natural gas and electrical.

[15:46] Those will be the focuses of the infrastructure upgrades that this PID will be responsible for.

[15:53] and I wanted to turn some time over to Madison Brown, excuse me, Madison Brown with Willard City.

[16:03] She is the city planner and wanted to mention a couple of things of why the city is excited about

[16:11] this new industrial development. Maddie is joining us online.

[16:17] Can everyone hear me? Yes. Okay, perfect.

[16:22] Well, Stephanie pretty much said everything that is great about Willard and about this location

[16:29] from the city's perspective, the biggest benefit from this PID is that it's going to drive

[16:35] growth in Willard. That's really what we're most excited about here at the city. We're seeking

[16:41] commercial growth and development in this area to bring in more businesses and tax revenue.

[16:46] We recently just completed our economic development plan and we learned that we're losing

[16:51] a lot of tax revenue to nearby cities, and we really want to fix that. Our city council

[16:56] really wants us to drive that and bring in some more commercial business. This PID is also

[17:04] going to be a great tool to help finance that infrastructure that's necessary to support

[17:10] that economic development that we're seeking without placing the entire burden on our existing

[17:16] residential taxpayers. Right now, Willard is mainly residential with very few commercial areas,

[17:23] and the commercial we do have is mainly mom and pop shops, home businesses, those kind of things.

[17:30] And like Stephanie said, this location is a prime location. Our economic development plan flagged

[17:37] it as a hotspot for industrial and commercial. Like you said, it's right near Willard Bay State Park,

[17:43] which we discovered is actually among the top five visited state parks in Utah.

[17:49] It's right next to I-15, right next to US-89, and it's just a great location for,

[17:56] it's right next to the railroad as well, a great location for any industrial. So

[18:02] the Golden Spike Plan recognizes that this is a great area for industrial and up

[18:09] until now, the infrastructure has been not hurtled for making any of that development

[18:14] happen. So we see this PID as what could be, you know, what helps us overcome that

[18:20] challenge. And we're not looking to just put in more buildings, we're looking to bring

[18:24] in some jobs, some good commercial development that will help generate that additional

[18:30] revenue that could help the city maintain and improve infrastructure, citywide for a long

[18:36] time. So we really see this BID as a tool that could help us to get that initial investment

[18:43] without the financial risk to the local taxpayers. It's going to help protect them and

[18:50] the financial risk will be on those commercial developers. So the city is excited about it.

[18:56] We see as a great opportunity for the city.

[19:00] Thank you so much, Maddie. I will now turn some time

[19:03] I'm over to Greg Nelson with Milstream Partners.

[19:06] He is the landowner and developer of this project

[19:09] and wanted to give him an opportunity to talk through

[19:12] the history of this project

[19:13] and their partnership with Willard City.

[19:16] Thank you, Stephanie, Madam Chair, members of the board.

[19:18] Thank you for your time, this morning for your service.

[19:21] Maddie, thank you.

[19:22] It's been a joy to work with Maddie as city planner

[19:25] and members of the city council and Willard City.

[19:28] We're excited to be in this spot.

[19:29] We're excited to partner with the city development

[19:32] is a team sport and the city and the military partners and the community are partnering on this,

[19:38] because it's a logical spot to drive tax revenue for a city of just less than 900 households

[19:43] that generally speaking would like to stay rural, but the cost of staying rural is finding

[19:48] somewhere within their city that makes sense to drive some tax revenue so they can stay rural.

[19:54] This spot is one of those spots you drive by and go why isn't that developed into something

[19:59] like industrial it should have been because it's literally in between a railroad in a highway.

[20:04] And the reason why is it was owned by five different farming families and people

[20:09] kept coming in and trying to buy the land from them. And they all said, guys, you don't get it,

[20:14] we want a farm. And so we love this project because we believe it's a great example of how we

[20:20] keep a city, a quote unquote rural city, keep the identity and the culture of a city and balance

[20:27] response, responsible development in a place where a community in a city actually wants

[20:31] it.

[20:32] It's city-driven, not developer-driven, but do it in a way where we also preserve the

[20:37] character of the city.

[20:39] The way that this deal got done is we actually ended up swapping land, belts were in the city,

[20:45] for farming with those that were farming this land.

[20:48] So the net farming stays the same.

[20:50] The rural community stays the same, and that's how we kind of found a win for everybody, and

[20:56] And we're excited about it, because Willard is a special place.

[21:00] You've all probably in peaches from Willard.

[21:02] It's on Highway 89.

[21:04] It's marvelous.

[21:05] If you haven't had a peach shake up there, you're missing out in life.

[21:08] And we want that to continue to happen, but the only way it can continue to happen is if

[21:14] residents don't bear the cost of upgrading infrastructure and all these things, they just

[21:19] can't.

[21:20] And so, in the Willard City General Plan, this was identified as the area where Willard could

[21:25] say, hey, let's make a go of it here. Generally people aren't going to want to build their homes

[21:33] next to I-15. I'm sure, or next to a railroad in Sandwich in the middle. So let's develop that.

[21:40] Keep Willard rural. Keep the feel. But we've got to have infrastructure funds. And in this part of

[21:46] Willard, the Willard City budget just can't handle it. And so we're really thrilled to partner with Willard.

[21:51] We are thrilled that this came about by swapping farmland within the city to preserve the character

[21:57] Because we think that's an important part of partnering with the city and a community and

[22:02] creating something great. So we're just thrilled to be here

[22:05] Thank you

[22:07] I also want to I would be remiss to not mention we have dedicated 3% of the increment generated within this project area to

[22:17] to wetland preservation and we're really excited that that 3% will stay local to this area.

[22:25] This area has proximity to the Willard Bay recreation area and we have some really exciting

[22:35] potential projects right adjacent to this area that will allow us to preserve a lot of wetland

[22:42] areas in perpetuity. And so we're excited to generate those funds to preserve those sensitive lands

[22:48] and keep those funds right there in Willard so they can feel those impacts on the environmental

[22:56] investment as well. Thanks Stephanie. Appreciate it. We do have a couple questions.

[23:01] Representative Cutler, I'll turn some time to you. If you're done with your. Yes. Great.

[23:06] Great. Thank you. My understanding is this is just north of the exit that most people

[23:11] used to go to Willard Bay. Are there any, are there any residential structures in this area

[23:18] today? It's 100 percent. Yeah, no residential structures on the property. The only improvement

[23:25] of note is a flying J that everyone uses to guess their boats up before they go in the

[23:30] place. I think everybody's probably seen that. You have that and then you have a set of small

[23:35] storage units. Maybe 40 storage units just next to that. That's the only thing there.

[23:39] I think that's another reason why the community really likes this area is because

[23:43] there's really not anything around it. On the other side of I-15, there are no homes or residential

[23:48] development. There's mostly cattle farming. On the east side of the railroad that runs along the

[23:53] east side of that picture you're seeing, those are farms and it's farmed by several different

[23:59] farming families, all of which we know well, that are generational farmers and plan to continue farming.

[24:04] So, it's really ideally located for that reason.

[24:08] Thank you.

[24:09] And tell us why this, and maybe this is a question for the city, why they're coming to the

[24:18] island port to say we want to be a part of this area, why could you not as a developer develop

[24:24] the infrastructure and do this on your own without other economic development tools?

[24:30] What's the need for a state economic development authority to get involved?

[24:34] Yeah, Maddie, I'm happy to answer, but you're also chime in if you want to.

[24:40] The real issue is that regionally in this part of Willard, it's not just infrastructure

[24:46] we need to improve right here within those red lines.

[24:50] There are upstream infrastructure improvements that have to happen in order to make this

[24:55] available.

[24:56] And the city on its own doesn't have the capacity to do so.

[24:59] And as a developer, if we paid for all the regional infrastructure required, then this project will never happen because it doesn't make any sense.

[25:09] We would lose money doing the project because of the regional infrastructure required upstream.

[25:15] Good example is two fairly large water reservoirs that will be placed up on the mountain to ensure that we're using water efficiently.

[25:23] There are a number of water projects related to this where right now regionally water comes

[25:29] off of surface streets and things and it goes kind of nowhere.

[25:33] And we can tie in some of these projects that we couldn't pay for ourselves because we

[25:37] would lose money so a private party just wouldn't do it and that the city can't handle because

[25:42] it's a small city of less than 900 households, so they can't afford to do it.

[25:46] So in order to activate this, the tool of the inland port authority is amazing because you

[25:52] a rural city that just can't. And a private developer won't. And so it's a great partnership

[25:58] for the state to support a rural wind. It's but for the inland port. This never happens

[26:05] because the math just doesn't work. Thanks.

[26:09] This is Jerry. Can I ask a question? We'll make a statement.

[26:15] Hello. Go right ahead, Jerry.

[26:18] Oh, you know, I've been involved in the partial property probably about a mile and a half

[26:26] south of this partial right along the freeway. I'm not involved in it now. We worked through

[26:33] a development process. It did not pencil for the exact reasons that the developer is talking

[26:40] about here.

[26:42] Wonderful area to work in, good people to work with.

[26:47] As I look at this, I look at, you know, there are...

[26:52] What the developer said is absolutely total truth.

[26:55] There's a lot of regional things that need to happen.

[26:59] The bid process, of course, we use that, all of the states,

[27:03] that exact same reason is because it, not only will this process

[27:08] help with this property, but it will help with the future of parcels. But I think, I think,

[27:16] for pretty much on track what's going on here, but we tried to get sewer water to a

[27:21] partial south, and it did not work. It did not mislead around with it for two or three years,

[27:27] and then finally moved on to greener pastures. But I've drove up to, in fact, I drove to

[27:35] Brigham City on Saturday and looked at this parcel and kind of drove around it.

[27:41] How wonderful lunch and one of those peach shakes he was talking about. Although this year

[27:46] there made out a bite of whole peaches. I want you to know that. There is a lot of

[27:50] for that care at all. But I just think that we've got a wonderful opportunity and this is

[27:58] this is a I think falls right into the vision of what we looked at when we put the inland port

[28:03] process together. We're headed for 10 years now. So if it seems like it seems like just a great

[28:13] parcel, a great place to move to and it seems like everyone's kind of done it with all the eyes

[28:19] and checked all the boxes before they move forward on this. So great, great job folks. Appreciate staff

[28:27] work also. Thanks, Jerry. Victoria, you had a comment?

[28:33] I actually have a question. So I come from a community where people like to speak for me too.

[28:38] I represent the west side of Salt Lake City. Everyone knows what we should be doing and most of them

[28:43] fail to ask questions first. So please hear this with the spirit that it's intended. I am asking this

[28:48] question. But I heard as a refrain proximity to Willard Bay as a feature, not a possible caution.

[28:58] here. And from what I understand and I'm an environmentalist only in so much as migratory birds

[29:06] prove that those farmers can continue to live on the land. I'm not someone who just talks about

[29:12] about migratory birds for migratory birds, although I appreciate those of you who do. But I'm concerned

[29:19] because Willard Bay from what I understand is the only, is a freshwater repository for us

[29:25] because this is a terrifying drought year, and Superl Menio, especially the further north

[29:32] you go, does not promise anything. So, restoration is not promised to us, although we have a reason

[29:38] to hope we're not going to die next year. But can you explain to me why the proximate,

[29:44] first of all, what is proximate? I think I've driven up here enough to understand

[29:48] about how far I've driven out to Antilope Island from Highway 15. So, I think I have

[29:53] in approximate, but how far do we have to zoom out of this map before we see Willard Bay?

[29:59] And secondly...

[30:00] What does that do for you? I care about these farmers, and you were right, I'm having difficulty preserving the last rural properties in Salt Lake City. Preserving rural is something that we have not taken seriously as a state, as a county, as municipalities. And now farmers are being priced out of their historic existence, not debating that. And like that we're getting creative here about how to preserve that. But what kind of cautions are we taking?

[30:29] I mean, infrastructure could be varying oil tanks for certain industries that doesn't

[30:37] feel like a stellar use, this close to a freshwater repository in a state losing water regularly.

[30:42] Can you explain to me, first of all, the proximity and second of all, what you're doing,

[30:47] what's your paradigm for decision making as you develop this close to something that not just

[30:52] your community depends on, but literally all of us in the state depend on?

[30:56] Great questions. Fantastic questions. This is a spot where as you drive everything sort

[31:04] of narrows and you just kind of drive through it, but as Senator Stevenson was mentioning,

[31:08] we all drive past it. And so if you zoomed out, this is in that narrow spot where about 5,000

[31:15] feet to the east, that big steep mountain with the crazy fault line that we all hope stays exactly

[31:22] where it is for a long time is on the mountain and you're not that far from Willard Bay.

[31:27] I mean, how many feet before you're in the water, 15,000 feet?

[31:32] So am I two miles, something like that ish?

[31:35] And so to your point, we've got to be careful about that.

[31:39] Planning for that started about four years ago.

[31:42] In connection with what we're doing here, we saw that, share your concern.

[31:46] We live here, I live in Davis County.

[31:48] we care about that, I would like water to drink and all, I would like my kids to have water to drink and all those things.

[31:55] And so we acquired more acreage on the west side of the highway in between where we are in Willard Bay.

[32:04] And we purchased that with the intent that it's going to sit there as a buffer number one.

[32:09] Number two, what's happening right now is while this just sits there, we're actually less efficient in protecting Willard Bay.

[32:18] And the great salt lake because there has been no planning around how water goes from the east side, those big steep mountains and the irrigation and all that runoff.

[32:30] It just sort of flows down here and there's actually a spot where the railroad goes where there's all these trees growing because there's a ditch that just sort of runs out to know where it does nothing for us.

[32:43] And part of this infrastructure will allow us to channel water from the east, capture

[32:50] all of it, and then send it, there's these really cool pipes under the freeway, jump

[32:56] it into those pipes, out into the 200 acres we purchased in connection with this, that

[33:01] will stay wetlands, and actually get more water there.

[33:05] So we hear your concern, we've been planning for it for four years, and we spent the money

[33:11] to acquire the land in between us and the lake for purposes of preserving because you're right.

[33:18] Will there be a conservation easement on that western land that runs with the land?

[33:22] We're working on that right now. We've talked with the Nature Conservancy. We spoke with Hannah,

[33:26] the Commissioner of the Great Salt Lake about that last week. And so yes, we're working on that and

[33:31] that is the goal. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other questions. Thank you for your presentation.

[33:37] And again, we're not taking any action on this one today.

[33:40] This is more informational purposes, so thanks, Stephanie.

[33:44] Thank you.

[33:44] All right, Jenna, you can come up and we'll give you a time

[33:50] to talk to us about our own resources and some resources.

[33:56] Excuse me.

[33:58] Thank you, Green River.

[34:00] We have a very exciting opportunity in Green River.

[34:04] It has been a little bit prefaced in our tax deferential committee

[34:07] and recommended to move forward with approval by the board.

[34:11] I actually have Bruce Richardson here.

[34:13] He is the CEO of Anson Resources

[34:16] and he's going to go over a little bit about their project

[34:19] and the company and what they intend to do in Ring River.

[34:23] And then we have Ariane Gibson, our CFO,

[34:25] who's going to go over the financials

[34:27] and presentation of exactly what that incentive would look like

[34:32] and the nuts and bolts of that decision.

[34:35] Bruce?

[34:38] Thanks, Jenna. I appreciate that and thank you for the opportunity of attending today's meeting.

[34:44] Our project is in Green River, Utah, Emory County, primarily in Emory County. We've been

[34:52] working on the project for quite a number of years. Jenny, are you able to put up the presentation?

[34:57] I was going to tell you what, Minnes. Okay, I will show those slides.

[35:02] Yeah, so we've got a little bit of a hang there, but this is what it'll look like when it's built.

[35:10] The project itself, it's a lithium project, it's extracting lithium from brine.

[35:14] For brine is around about 10 to 11,000 feet below surface.

[35:19] It's not at surface, it's a long way down.

[35:21] As you'll probably know, a paradox base and there is a lot of pressure,

[35:25] and that's one of the attributes of the project which makes this work.

[35:28] Next please.

[35:37] That's not going down.

[35:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah, move around the left there.

[35:46] Okay, so just this is showing you the project location.

[35:51] Paradox basis, I say, is that brown area that you can see on the southeast corner there.

[35:59] Green River and Moab, where our projects are located.

[36:03] There is a very big reservoir of brine, a brine which cannot be used for any other purpose

[36:09] than to extract minerals from.

[36:13] So it's a very advanced project now.

[36:15] We've been working since 2017.

[36:18] It's a very low cost project.

[36:19] It's very environmentally friendly.

[36:21] That's how we started the project with that approach

[36:24] to ensure that we produced the product that was good

[36:28] or had very low impact upon the environment

[36:31] because this is after all as a way of reducing CO2

[36:34] the electric vehicle industry is what we were targeting.

[36:37] The development of Green River also meets with Governor Cox's support for critical

[36:42] minerals and of course the local community is very strongly supportive of it to bring

[36:47] your jobs to the area.

[36:49] So far we've invested around $50 million in this project.

[36:53] We expect that there will be over 500 construction jobs over about a two-year period, 138 permanent

[37:00] jobs and a population of 900 people living in the city of Green River.

[37:04] We've signed an MOU with USU to eastern to do two courses to upskill the local community,

[37:14] to be able to operate the lithium plant and some other skills that they don't have currently.

[37:22] We signed a community benefits agreement with the Green River City Council and we have

[37:26] very strong support from the Council and to the local community.

[37:33] potentially there's also some work that we're doing with an international company from

[37:37] Korea called POSCO and they're investing some money at the moment in a demonstration

[37:41] plant which would be aimed at further developing this project opportunity.

[37:49] Thanks, Jenna.

[37:50] Yes, so just showing some of the things we've been doing down there, Green River, of course

[37:55] is famous for its melons, not peaches, but because you have a peach, you have a melonshake

[38:00] maybe combine them. So that's coming up very soon. We've been doing that since 2024. So I think we're

[38:08] in our third year now. That's on the right there is a picture of one of the town hall meetings

[38:12] that we've had. I think we've had three and probably drew for another one soon as this project starts

[38:17] to further develop. Thank you. Infrastructure I was mentioned earlier that we have a lot of

[38:23] infrastructure here and the key component of this is developed by the Army. The Army was here

[38:29] is a missile base back in the 60s, 70s, 80s.

[38:34] I left behind a lot of this infrastructure

[38:35] which is not being used.

[38:37] The blue outline area there is the property

[38:41] that we purchased, so this is private land

[38:43] that we plan to develop.

[38:45] You'll see there's a strange polygon

[38:46] in the middle there, a white shape.

[38:49] That is where Union and Carbine did some uranium enrichment.

[38:53] So this is a true brownfield project.

[38:55] The area itself cannot be used

[38:56] for any other purpose but industrial.

[38:58] You see a dotted green line showing industrial zone, it's an important thing to consider

[39:04] that we can't do anything else with this property other than port industry on it because

[39:10] of the union carbon activities that were there previously.

[39:13] The advantage is the infrastructure.

[39:15] We don't have to put a lot of money into expanding the infrastructure or extending the infrastructure.

[39:20] You'll see a power line there, it's available and 400 meters or so from the project site which

[39:27] which is that brown rectangle in the blue square, that's the site there, yes, thank you.

[39:35] So our gas is also available, it was brought there in 2023 and can be extended to the

[39:41] property. Water we're taking from the city municipal water company rather than extracting

[39:48] ourselves from the river, which we have a permit to do that, to build a pumping station

[39:52] And now we also have rights for taking the water out,

[39:55] but we decided to provide additional revenue to the city.

[39:58] We would buy the water from the city authority,

[40:00] and that helps both us and them.

[40:03] So that's the major parts of the utilities that we need.

[40:07] You can also see a railway siding,

[40:09] which does have some siding in Green River City,

[40:13] and we would utilize that and the I-70,

[40:15] which runs through the property.

[40:16] So a fairly low cost additional,

[40:19] So low additional capex costs required to get this approach to operation.

[40:23] Thank you. Environmental life cover some of these points, so it's Brownfield's development,

[40:29] Union Carbine, the Army was there, of course, during that period,

[40:34] finally sending those missiles off into New Mexico, I think it was.

[40:39] Can't be used for any other purpose, and we have completed environmental, historical

[40:44] and cultural studies, and there are no environmental issues.

[40:47] So we designed the project to have a very small footprint about 10 acres, which has some impact.

[40:56] But minimal, that's the way we thought of how to develop this project.

[41:00] We wanted to have as little impact as possible.

[41:03] 95% of the water is processed. We do work in water, so there's no emissions.

[41:08] So we don't cook things up. We don't refine things.

[41:11] nothing comes out of there as that type of pollution emission that you have in

[41:17] other projects. It's all water. So the process itself is we use a resident to

[41:22] extract the lithium from the brine and then we wash it off with water and from

[41:26] there on we reduce the water and we take out impurities to make a product which

[41:30] goes into electric vehicle. We designed the process to have as little use of

[41:35] chemicals as possible. Some of the processes that you can use to remove the

[41:40] impurities are chemical based and in our case we use oxygen so we have an iron is in the

[41:48] brine which has some negative impact on the performance of the resin we use so we extract

[41:53] the iron by injecting oxygen and that forms into Fe2O3 which gets heavy and then falls out

[42:00] precipitates to the bottom of the tank so other process they use chemicals so we have been

[42:05] and very careful in reducing as much as possible

[42:09] than the use of chemicals in this process.

[42:12] Thank you, Jenna.

[42:15] The advantages are created by two things in this project

[42:19] compared to other producers in the United States

[42:22] and worldwide.

[42:24] I've mentioned earlier the pressure

[42:27] that's in the paradox basin,

[42:29] 4,500 psi to 6,000 psi.

[42:32] For those who pump their ties, that's about 37 psi.

[42:34] a load of pressure and what it means is it pushes the brine from 10 to 11,000 feet towards

[42:40] the surface. Almost at Green River it almost comes to the surface at our other location

[42:45] further down in Moab, it comes out and still has pressure when it reaches the surface.

[42:51] That means you have less electricity cost and then overall cost in the production process.

[42:56] The second advantage is that we have very low impurities in the brine. So we've given

[43:03] In some examples, Green River, 135 standard lithium is an Arkansas project.

[43:09] It has higher lithium, and salt and sea is a California project, which has a slightly

[43:14] higher lithium content, but the key part is those three things at the bottom, FV boron

[43:20] and silica, and we have lower amounts of those, and that means the process to clean it up to

[43:25] get it to a battery grade, which is 99.5% pure, that's what you put into your electric vehicle

[43:31] battery. So getting those other impurities out to reach that 99.5% is a cost. So having

[43:38] low impurities at the front of the, you know, the raw brain coming in means you spend

[43:43] less money cleaning it up. So that is very good economics for the project, which on the

[43:49] next slide we can see how that compares. And these are all lithium projects in the United

[43:53] States. The one you may know is Thacker Pass. It's a big purple block there, which the Federal

[43:59] government has funded over there in Northern Nevada. You can see their costs are much higher,

[44:05] ours of course is down. The very end there, the small green block and the reason for being

[44:10] small is it's based on tonnage. So overall with the lowest cost will be the lowest cost producer

[44:16] of lithium in the United States and that is important for banks and for people who are investing

[44:23] in the project. I think I'll leave it there, so thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions

[44:28] you might have. We do have two quick questions if I put number one how many jobs do you anticipate

[44:37] creating? There will be in the construction I think was in the first slide there was about 500

[44:44] jobs that we will create in the in the during the construction period and there will be something

[44:50] around the 200 jobs that will be created ongoing so full time jobs and of course those positions

[44:57] will be skilled, not unskilled, so people agree with it.

[45:00] River will be expecting higher rates of pay after they've completed courses to qualify for that type of position. Thank you very much. Second question. You said that one of the, I guess you have iron that you create in this process is this iron, have you usable? Is it used in agriculture or is it just a byproduct that you need to dispose of?

[45:27] Yeah, good question. The iron is a byproduct. So after we've extracted the lithium from the

[45:33] brine and we, that's attached onto the resin, we wash it off with water and the lithium

[45:39] and water go in one direction. Everything else goes back to where it came from. So we put

[45:45] it back down 10,000 feet into aquifers, empty aquifers that are down the pump attack back in

[45:52] there and can be used for future purposes. So all those other impurities that are listed

[45:57] there before they'll be still on the brine and if someone invents you know a process where

[46:02] you need boron to fly to Mars well you'll have a reservoir available there for the future.

[46:10] Another critical thing. So what is the ultimate use of the iron you create?

[46:16] We don't create any iron, we just extract it. So the iron coats onto the resin which means that

[46:24] the resident doesn't act efficiently as it does when it first starts, so over time it builds up.

[46:30] So we remove it prior to going into the resident. And then we put that that eye which is still in

[46:36] a liquid and we pump that back down with all the other five products and waste brine that comes from

[46:44] the process. Okay, thank you very much. All right, we've got a few questions here in the room Bruce,

[46:52] percent color. Thank you. Bruce, we are in let's

[46:57] let's well and get updates from a pilot project doing lithium extraction in the green river

[47:05] area. Is this the same project? Is this the same company or is that a different company?

[47:13] There should be the same. There are about, as I understand, four other projects in the

[47:18] Paradox Basin and two of them including ours is near Green River so there are other projects

[47:26] but this is the most advanced project so we've been working this for seven years and have

[47:31] done test work, have all our government approvals which are mostly state government approvals and

[47:37] an emission for having to report on anything that comes out as an air emission that's we don't

[47:44] to report on that because it's so low. So we're the most advanced. So if you have heard of the

[47:48] project before and in the US we call that A1 Lithium. It's fascinating technology. Thank you. Victoria.

[47:59] On one of the sites, you said you did studies on environmental, environmental, cultural and

[48:05] historical, but the only one you said was that there was no environmental issues. Is it just

[48:11] oversight, I'm hoping there's no cultural or historical issues that we're

[48:15] trembling. Yeah, so yes, you could understand that given the activity that's

[48:21] happened there in the past with the Army and and with with Union Carbine there

[48:27] is no heritage left there to find. Let's put it that way. So there's we did do the

[48:35] survey and there is no activity. You would think that you know there would have

[48:39] to be in a community that might have camped next to the river at some time in the past,

[48:45] but all those traces have disappeared.

[48:48] Thank you.

[48:51] Thanks, Bruce.

[48:52] We appreciate you.

[48:53] He's calling from Australia.

[48:54] It's like three in the morning over there, so appreciate your time and putting on a suit

[49:00] jacket.

[49:00] You do Jonathan.

[49:01] Sorry.

[49:02] We're going to take one more question from Jonathan.

[49:06] Thank you, Bruce.

[49:07] This is a comment.

[49:07] Thanks for that presentation.

[49:08] I'm just very excited about this project in Green River and the possibilities there.

[49:15] I mean, aside on top of the 50 million investment that you just mentioned,

[49:20] this partnership with Pasco, a South Korean company, and a huge conglomerate

[49:27] and their investment here is significant.

[49:30] Even though it's a demonstration plant, my understanding is that there is the

[49:36] opportunity for a far greater collaboration and this is exactly what I love

[49:41] to see is foreign direct investment coming into our state, creating jobs,

[49:46] strengthening our rural communities and families. So thanks very much, very

[49:51] exciting. One other thing I wanted to mention was the low cost of extraction that

[49:56] you mentioned is also important because aside from the points you listed, in my

[50:02] mind, it combats against China dumping into our market and it makes us more

[50:08] competitive. So I'd love to hear that we're the most competitive in the United

[50:12] States. That's good. Thank you, Bruce. I don't see any other questions. Thank you for

[50:17] your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. I just like to tell Bruce, you know, years and

[50:27] years ago, I had a lady to work for me that had the same accent that he has. It was

[50:34] proved to be very costly, but it worked out really well. It gave me the, I had the

[50:40] only multicultural nursery in the state of Utah.

[50:45] Thanks, Jerry.

[50:47] All right, Jenna, we're going to stay with you, I think.

[50:50] Actually, let's turn it over to Ariane. She's going to go over the financials of this.

[50:53] Okay.

[50:53] Yeah, so are you able to see my presentation that says use of tax increment?

[51:02] Can you see that? Got it. I got it. Okay. As part of this last legislative session,

[51:11] we were asked to provide a little more transparency into the numbers behind the use of tax increment.

[51:18] So this is a new second half to our presentation specifically for this incentive.

[51:28] Bruce has talked a lot about the project scope in detail, so I will forego that side of

[51:34] it.

[51:35] A couple areas that highlight on the public good and benefits we talked about job creation.

[51:40] There's also a partnership working with the USU Eastern to train and retain local technical

[51:49] careers in the area.

[51:52] And they're working with the city on the formal covenant to fund municipal water infrastructure

[52:00] and the local procurement there.

[52:02] And overall, this is going to strengthen the U.S. clean energy and resilience for responsible

[52:10] domestic production.

[52:12] So the exciting side to get into, at least for me, is the financial side and the numbers.

[52:18] So right now, the status quo on this area that they're looking at is there's 8400 dollars

[52:26] collected in taxes. It's a $2,100 agricultural value property. So as we look at this project

[52:37] coming in, an investment of 1.3 billion in private Catholics, there's going to be a real

[52:45] significant growth in the area. The net public yield we're looking at is 233 million and public

[52:55] like incentive cap of $194 million.

[52:59] So the incentive will be structured at a 50%

[53:04] of what the in-lamport receives.

[53:10] And when we're looking at that here in the presentation,

[53:15] you can see as highlighted in yellow

[53:17] that it would amount to just under $194 million.

[53:20] dollars. We're also asked in that statute to show it in the net present value, which would be

[53:26] $83 million. This is an incentive and the calculations are based on the property tax

[53:33] assumed based on the catbacks of the $1.3 billion planning to be invested.

[53:42] And you can see some other assumptions that align within there. So

[53:47] So overall, UIPA is anticipating to receive $387 million.

[53:56] $193 million would flow through to AMSEN, and then there would be a admin fee and then

[54:02] remaining tax increment fund available for uses through the project area for a different

[54:07] infrastructure needs.

[54:10] This next slide breaks down.

[54:13] The advantages that the taxing entities and their proportion to share that they're going

[54:17] to be receiving. So you'll see years 1-25 that are showing how much they're going to collect.

[54:25] That's when the port is in the process in that first 25 triggered years. After 25 years,

[54:31] the port steps away and all the tax revenue goes to the local entities. So 1-25 and then you look

[54:39] at 26 through 40. 26 or 40 is only 15 years. So looking at our highest tax entity participation

[54:48] is the Emory School District. They're going, they're into this calculations anticipating

[54:55] almost 49 million dollars being received by the school district. That's a 20, 21 percent.

[55:03] That's just years one through 25. When you get to years 26 or 40 and the port has stepped away,

[55:08] that leaves 180 million or 31.5% of that taxing base going directly to the school district.

[55:20] So obviously the education is getting the highest portion but you can see all the other

[55:27] taxing entities and what that's going to provide to the community on this slide.

[55:32] Just jumping in again to the contribution to UIPA,

[55:38] during those first 25 years, that 25% of the growth

[55:43] will stay with the local communities.

[55:45] The Inland Port receives the other 75%.

[55:49] And so that would amount to the $388 million

[55:53] that we talked about there.

[55:55] Just another way to present it.

[55:58] You can see from year one,

[56:01] which were estimating 2028 through 2052, this is the tax base to the local districts and

[56:08] remember that they're only receiving 8,000 right now. These are actually in 1,000 so that's

[56:15] 3 million. And then in year 26 upwards, you're going to see that revenue growth for the community

[56:25] We continue to expand the incentive to A1 let the M is only here in the first 25 years.

[56:36] And then moving on, one of the other things we've been asked to highlight is by taxing

[56:41] entity the amount collected for 40 years.

[56:48] So I'm not going to read every single one of those numbers to you, but I will highlight here

[56:53] year, in year 2053, is when you see that change over from the port receiving anything

[57:02] and the incentive to answer them, and then it all reverts to the taxing entity.

[57:09] So it goes from 12 million to 33 million to the taxing entities in that final year.

[57:17] And then here's the last 10 years.

[57:20] So, as Jenna mentioned, we brought this to the internal tax differential committee and

[57:27] they had recommended we move this on to the board and so I have a proposed motion here

[57:35] if the board would like to entertain it but I'm happy to entertain any questions on the

[57:40] numbers and the disclosure that I just went through.

[57:45] Thanks, Ariane. We'll get to that when we take action at the end of the board meeting,

[57:50] but thank you. And first time that we've had to present, it was House Bill to SB 206.

[57:58] And so wonderful slides. It was really easy to read. And thank you for that. Thank you for

[58:03] it in the pre-board package. We'll send that to Representative Walter to know that his work is

[58:09] being executed. Any other questions for her members of the board?

[58:17] Alright, this is a great

[58:19] project. Let's move on, Jenna, then to your next item, the Skyline corridor. I'll turn

[58:25] you back on.

[58:28] Members of the board, we have a fourth amendment proposed for Skyline corridor.

[58:33] As a reminder, Skyline corridor actually covers six different communities. This amendment

[58:38] is only in this line-up area, the these darker areas is what is already in the project area,

[58:48] the proposed amendment adds about 566 acres on the other side of the freeway. It does include

[58:55] a tire store that is currently being constructed. They actually broke ground a little bit ago.

[59:01] This line-up city intends to trigger that parcel this year as well and utilize that money to

[59:05] to assist with the construction of a road that will not only give access to the tire store,

[59:10] but open up for the other parcels for development, and we, I don't know if I'm jumping again

[59:17] here a little bit, but we do have a couple of companies that are looking at those parcels

[59:20] as well.

[59:20] So to get this road constructed is very important to do sooner rather than later.

[59:26] Tax differential committee on August 24th approved and recommended that we move this forward

[59:32] with the board.

[59:33] Are there any questions on that?

[59:37] I don't see any, Jenna. Thank you.

[59:38] Thank you.

[59:40] All right, Danny, are you here online?

[59:43] Oh, he's online.

[59:44] All right.

[59:45] We'll turn some time to you on the mineral mountains project.

[59:48] All right.

[59:50] I want to share my screen here.

[59:56] Hopefully you're seeing my slide deck.

[1:00:00] And here we've got it. Excellent. Happy to be here today, Madam Chair and Board Members. I'm excited to present the mineral mountains project area amendment number four to you today. Joining me remotely are Mayor Nolan Davis from Milford and also the city administrator, Michaela Beeler. I'll give them a few minutes later in this presentation. This amendment adds a very small amount of property in Milford City.

[1:00:29] to the Milford Zone of the project area,

[1:00:33] which is the largest zone in the project area.

[1:00:37] This property is highlighted by the red arrow on this map.

[1:00:41] This is in the northern end of Milford City.

[1:00:45] City officials have asked us to make this amendment

[1:00:48] to address the community's serious housing needs

[1:00:51] that are present there.

[1:00:53] This amendment would qualify these parcels

[1:00:56] for an AIB loan application to hopefully be able to help with the public

[1:01:02] infrastructure needs to address housing in the city. This photo is of a real

[1:01:08] house in Beaver County. Pretty sure this wasn't built because of a housing shortage

[1:01:12] in the turn of the last century, but it does show that this area has found some very

[1:01:16] creative housing solutions in the past. The point being Milford is needing to get

[1:01:21] very creative to address its workforce housing challenges today.

[1:01:26] Workforce housing is a hot topic across the state, but really a few communities housing

[1:01:31] needs come close to what's going on in Milford right now.

[1:01:35] In many cases communities need housing so that they can attract jobs, but in Milford hundreds

[1:01:41] of high-paying jobs have already come to the community, but many of these employees are

[1:01:46] are having to commute daily from neighboring counties

[1:01:50] because there's such limited housing availability here.

[1:01:55] These jobs that I mentioned are coming from construction

[1:01:58] on the Furvo Energy Cape Station Geothermal Energy Project,

[1:02:03] the expansion of Milford Mining's operations

[1:02:07] and construction of a large solar project in the valley.

[1:02:14] It's estimated that Milford City is losing about $20 million this year due to so many workers living outside of the community.

[1:02:24] They're taking their wages home outside of the community. They're paying taxes outside of the community. They're buying their groceries and other things.

[1:02:32] So a lot of money is leaking out.

[1:02:34] Many of these workers, especially those in long-term positions, would love to live in

[1:02:40] Milford if they could, rather than commute more than 100 miles each day for work.

[1:02:47] So the inland court authority team members have been meeting with Milford City officials

[1:02:52] along with representatives from Utah's affordable housing programs, but these programs don't

[1:02:58] really work for Milford because these are not low-income jobs, affordable housing solutions

[1:03:04] don't fit the community's needs.

[1:03:08] Milford City has rallied to find some solutions for this housing crisis,

[1:03:13] including working with local hotels and RV parks to allow for long-term lodging.

[1:03:19] The RV park that's shown in this Google Earth image was created in very short order

[1:03:25] to allow for RV hookups for workers,

[1:03:28] but the city needs some long-term solutions.

[1:03:33] years ago, a subdivision was platted for new residential development, but this project

[1:03:39] was not completed. Some of the infrastructure was installed, but it now needs to be repaired

[1:03:45] and upgraded, and the rest of the infrastructure still needs to be brought in. So we're talking

[1:03:50] utilities and roads, etc. A private consultant, Matt Liu, of a sent land consultant, has been

[1:03:59] working very closely with the city and the properties owners to invest into the infrastructure

[1:04:05] and begin construction on the first phase of this subdivision including these 28 residential

[1:04:11] lots. City is confident that this investment in new housing construction, the development

[1:04:17] of this infrastructure will help drive the development of the remainder of this subdivision

[1:04:21] in the next several months. In order for this developer to qualify for

[1:04:29] for an AIB loan to jumpstart this residential project.

[1:04:33] Milford City is requesting that these 28 parcels

[1:04:36] be amended into the project area.

[1:04:39] I mentioned that the mayor and city administrator here,

[1:04:42] Mayor Davis, McAuliffe,

[1:04:44] you'd like to take a few minutes to address the board.

[1:04:46] I'll turn the time over to you.

[1:04:52] Thanks, Danny.

[1:04:53] I appreciate all the work you've done in the past

[1:04:55] and moving forward, we've got a lot of work to do.

[1:04:58] And I want to thank the board for an opportunity

[1:05:00] need to take a few minutes to your time. I want to read a statement and then I'll go ahead and

[1:05:06] add a few words to that. Milford is currently experiencing significant housing challenges as a

[1:05:13] result of the economic growth and development occurring in our community. That in the grant of

[1:05:18] you a state subdivision to the Utah and the Port Authority project area about an opportunity to

[1:05:23] support much-need housing development and help address the shorties. This development is

[1:05:30] important to ensuring that our community can provide housing for the workforce and

[1:05:34] families who want to live and work in Milford. Milford City fully supports including

[1:05:40] Granite View Estate within the pork area and believes this designation will help make

[1:05:45] the development of this needed housing possible. We respectfully ask the UICB Board to support

[1:05:52] the addition of the Granite View Estates to the project area. Back to what Danny said about

[1:05:58] the influx of what is taking place. FURGLE is got somewhere between 450 and 600 employees right now.

[1:06:08] The mine is in maintenance mode right now and they start back up in another month. They're

[1:06:14] going to have about 100.25.

[1:06:19] McCarthy is in here with her solar. There's somewhere around 125.

[1:06:27] They have only 30 employees out there right now because it's a very small geothermal program

[1:06:35] that they're doing right now.

[1:06:37] Virgo plans on expanding more as they continue to get into phase two.

[1:06:44] So this is a problem we've got.

[1:06:45] This happened overnight.

[1:06:47] This is something that, you know, we just really didn't expect here, Milford Utah.

[1:06:51] And we've talked about the housing needs for years and the problem we're running into is when we have developers command the infrastructure is one of the biggest problems.

[1:07:04] And a lot of them will say if we get by this infrastructure problem, maybe we can build some homes that we can sell for, you know, 354.

[1:07:15] But without some help on some business strategies,

[1:07:18] there's just going to be too costly for what you've got in Millford right now.

[1:07:23] So, this would be really a big boost for us if we could get this, you know, in the port area

[1:07:29] and get some help with the AIB funding to go ahead and do for this first project.

[1:07:35] I think once we get the first project done, I think it would kind of snowball and

[1:07:40] We could get some more developers in here and some more investors to say, yeah, this

[1:07:45] really is happening here, no, for Utah, and we see the need and we're going to try

[1:07:49] to help them out through housing need.

[1:07:52] So, thank you, anyway.

[1:07:59] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:08:00] Are there any other questions from the board?

[1:08:02] Danny, we've got some, just to follow up for the Mayor.

[1:08:06] it sounds like what I'm hearing is, if we could include these 28 lots in the project area,

[1:08:15] your belief is that not only would the infrastructure enable these 28 lots, but it would spur development

[1:08:22] in addition to these 28 lots that wouldn't need port or special economic assistance, that we need

[1:08:29] this to start the ball rolling, but it would potentially free up many more lots than just 28,

[1:08:35] because that doesn't seem like enough to solve your problem.

[1:08:39] My understanding correctly?

[1:08:41] Yes. Yes.

[1:08:43] Yeah, that's what we're looking at is just getting the infrastructure to this area

[1:08:48] so that we can get these first lots going and with the anticipation that will continue.

[1:08:53] You can see we haven't put the entire subdivision in.

[1:08:56] Inland port authorities not in the housing business necessarily,

[1:09:00] but in Millford's case, this housing is economic development

[1:09:04] and we feel like this phase one is a good way to get this started, and we'll, as you said, jumpstart this development.

[1:09:12] All

[1:09:15] right. Seeing no questions, thanks, Danny. Appreciate it.

[1:09:18] Thank you.

[1:09:20] All right. Members of the public, we're going to move on to public comment.

[1:09:25] We're going to ask two of you to come up and sit on the flanks of the, of the dius, and then we'll give you each two minutes.

[1:09:35] We're going to ask Rose and Rose Moore and Amy Lawson to come up and we'll start you.

[1:09:44] So Rose, you are first,

[1:09:50] and both your mics are on, so you just got to pull it towards

[1:09:56] you on the desk there.

[1:10:03] Okay.

[1:10:03] Time is yours.

[1:10:06] Hi, my name is Rose Moore, and I am with Tuila Cares.

[1:10:09] Director Hart, thank you for your opening comments.

[1:10:13] They are appreciated and noted.

[1:10:15] However, what binding assurances can you give to the people that you will not take any actions

[1:10:22] until our county has worked out all of the details for chapters 34, 38, and now 17A.

[1:10:30] Moving on, my comments today are preemptive in nature.

[1:10:33] I am requesting that you do not appropriate the $100 million bond for the Interstate Technology

[1:10:39] Project Park. In 1736, Benjamin Franklin stated an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of

[1:10:46] cure. He used it with regard to fire safety. Today, I use it within the context of a much more

[1:10:52] enigmatic albatross with harmful effects that we cannot predict, data centers. According to the

[1:11:03] That is $800 million Cosmos project dumped a white colony bacteria into the sanitary pipes

[1:11:09] of the community.

[1:11:11] The result was that the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities find the project $10,000 and

[1:11:15] permanently revoke the site's industrial discharge privileges.

[1:11:19] The city bams the closed loop cooling waste water from entering the municipal water system

[1:11:25] indefinitely, and the contractor was forced to haul the wastewater away in trucks.

[1:11:30] You don't know what you don't know, who knows what kind of unforeseen and toxic waste will be dumped into the ground water basin near the grape salt lake.

[1:11:39] These unanswered questions will directly impact critical policy making decisions regarding chapter 34, 38, the overlay.

[1:11:47] Being responsible means being proactive, not reactive, due diligence and transparency processes must be exhausted before funding and unleashing the proverbial genie.

[1:12:00] Be the gold standard, not just another cautionary tale.

[1:12:04] And as Winston Churchill stated, those who did not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

[1:12:10] Thank you.

[1:12:10] Appreciate your comments.

[1:12:12] Ms. Lawson.

[1:12:14] And we'll have Jessica Pershon, I believe, up next if you can sit where Miss Rose is.

[1:12:24] All right, the time is yours, Amy.

[1:12:27] Yeah, my name's Amy Losson.

[1:12:28] I'm a resident of Vittuala County.

[1:12:30] And I am here today to read a letter from the people who live in Vittuala Valley and people

[1:12:35] across the Losch Front who share the same air, the same shrinking lake and the same stake and

[1:12:41] what kind of future we're leaving for our kids.

[1:12:43] We are asking the Utah Inland Authority Board to decline to authorize any bonds or public

[1:12:48] financing for the Interstate Technology Park Public Infrastructure District, the entity

[1:12:53] that was created by this board in January of 2026 to fund roughly $100 million in infrastructure

[1:12:58] for a massive data storage center development at Vermice Road in I-80 in and next to the great

[1:13:04] Salt Lake wetlands. Here's why this matters to us. We all breathe the same air. This project's

[1:13:11] That's own developer told County officials he's already paid $11 million to build a 24-inch

[1:13:15] natural gas pipeline to power the data center himself off the regular grid.

[1:13:22] That means a new gas-fired power plant in our valley on top of everything else already

[1:13:26] here.

[1:13:27] And the gas pipeline may only be the beginning.

[1:13:29] Correspondence in our possession shows the developer separately signed a letter of intent with

[1:13:34] an undispoised power company to build and operate modular nuclear reactors on this same site,

[1:13:39] stackable to as much as a gigawatt of capacity.

[1:13:42] We've spent nuclear material to be hauled out of state.

[1:13:45] None of this has been presented to the public.

[1:13:48] We already carry more than our share of the state's industrial burden.

[1:13:51] We are asking you not to help finance more of it, site unseen.

[1:13:55] We all live by the same dying lake, and our wells are already struggling.

[1:13:59] The great salt lake is at record low levels in every water right that gets pulled towards industrial use

[1:14:03] is a water right that isn't reaching the lake.

[1:14:05] This isn't an abstract concern for us.

[1:14:08] The Tuwula Valley groundwater basin was declared over-appropriated and closed to new

[1:14:11] appropriations by the state of Utah back in 1996.

[1:14:14] There is already more water promised on paper than the aquifer consistently provide.

[1:14:19] Families here rely on private wells and multiple community members have already reported to

[1:14:23] our coalition that their well water levels are dropping and their water is becoming brackish.

[1:14:29] Thank you, ma'am.

[1:14:30] We did receive your letters and we all read it this morning, so appreciate you sending

[1:14:36] Alright, now Jessica, time is yours, and then on deck we'll have Natalie.

[1:14:41] We're switching.

[1:14:42] You're switching.

[1:14:43] Okay, Natalie, you're up now.

[1:14:44] Yeah, we know that you read it, but we want to make sure that it's heard and not just skimmed, so thank you.

[1:14:49] We owe the 1100 people that signed this.

[1:14:51] A 2009 federal ground water study warned that increased pumping in this basin could drop

[1:14:57] the water table by 10s to...

[1:15:00] Hundreds of feet. Adding a massive new industrial water user on top of an already over-appropriated, closed basin, while our own neighbors are already watching their wells decline is not a risk we can afford to take on faith. The developer has told the public that data centers use very little water and that his facilities don't draw any water out of the Great Salt Lake. But the same correspondence shows a project that has grown from 200 acres to a million square foot building plus several more

[1:15:29] on 600 acres. With water infrastructure, the developer has repeatedly tried to build

[1:15:35] without normal county permitting oversight. We would like the board to ask harder questions,

[1:15:41] including about impacts to our own drinking water wells before treating this project's

[1:15:45] own water claims as settled fact. We don't think our tax dollars, our tax dollars,

[1:15:52] should subsidize something that hurts us. This isn't a private company spending its own money.

[1:15:58] This is public financing, bonds backed by future tax revenue.

[1:16:03] For a project whose own oversight board is made up of the developer and his two business partners.

[1:16:09] Between the earlier 80 million TVPID bond, roughly 54 million in UIPA tax increment financing,

[1:16:16] already committed to this project area, and the 100 million now being sought for the Interstate Technology Park PID,

[1:16:23] This single project is on track to carry over $234 million in combined public financing, and we've only recently learned the scale of what's actually being built.

[1:16:33] We've seen emails where the developer signs correspondence under a shifting list of entities.

[1:16:37] Zennis-Bolinder LLC, GSL Industrial LLC, Sunstone IFC, Interstate IAD LLC, and now

[1:16:45] Burmester 1 LLC, sometimes switching identities within the same 24-hour period.

[1:16:50] We've learned that an earlier loan of nearly 5 million went to the same

[1:16:54] development group, just by unpaid county property taxes on record.

[1:16:59] And Jessica, you'll pick up?

[1:17:01] Yes.

[1:17:02] Okay.

[1:17:02] And Katie, you're on top.

[1:17:04] Jessica, Prashan.

[1:17:05] We don't think the public should be asked to trust financing decisions, this opaque with our money.

[1:17:10] We want a healthy future for ourselves and our kids.

[1:17:13] Toilet County hasn't even finished writing its own rules for data centers.

[1:17:16] County officials have said the county will not accept new data center applications until it's Chapter 34 ordinance is complete.

[1:17:22] The same holds the developer's own email is described scrambling to file ahead of a larger and

[1:17:27] later argue around.

[1:17:29] We are asking the board not to hand over 100 million in financing for

[1:17:32] or project that may not even be legal

[1:17:34] under the rules of our own county that's still finalizing.

[1:17:37] This should be discussed in public

[1:17:38] and not behind closed doors.

[1:17:40] We understand that representatives of the governor's office,

[1:17:42] this authority, and the project's own bond underwriter

[1:17:45] were invited to a private developer

[1:17:46] briefing on the State of Santa in August, 2026.

[1:17:49] Before us residents were even given any comparable opportunity

[1:17:52] to hear directly from you or ask questions of our own.

[1:17:55] If UIAP staff already have a working knowledge

[1:17:58] of this project's scope,

[1:17:59] we believe the public deserves the same information

[1:18:01] in an open meeting before any financing decision is made.

[1:18:04] Specifically, we ask the board to take the following formal actions.

[1:18:08] Adopt a resolution declining to authorize any bond parameters to resolution,

[1:18:12] inducement resolution, trigger resolution, or other financing action for the interstate technology.

[1:18:17] Part PID. And commit publicly to hold those positions, to hold that position unless they

[1:18:24] unless and until every concern in this letter has been addressed and then noticed in a public hearing.

[1:18:28] Direct UIP staff and legal counsel to formally investigate whether the district's governance

[1:18:32] with a Dell developer and his own business partner serving as a trustee,

[1:18:36] satisfies the authority's fiduciary and public accountability obligations.

[1:18:40] The report finds the findings publicly before any action on this district.

[1:18:45] Require the developer to provide sworn written disclosure of every entity connected to this project,

[1:18:50] including Zenneth Olender, GSL, Industrial, Sunstone, Interstate I-80, and Bermister-1.

[1:18:55] and their financial relationship to one another as a condition of any further staff engagement.

[1:19:00] Independently verified through a source with no financial stake in the outcome, the claim tenant

[1:19:04] and 2027 occupancy deadline the developer's repeatedly used to demand expedition action,

[1:19:12] and refused to treat an unverified private claims as grounds for public urgency,

[1:19:16] suspend all informal briefing site tours. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to read that.

[1:19:23] Thank you for taking the time to stay through this whole meeting, just to read that, as Ben said,

[1:19:30] in his earlier comment. None of this is on the agenda. We will not be putting it on an agenda

[1:19:36] in the future. It's going to go through a different process that will not come to this board. So,

[1:19:43] I think that we can call that process. Well, why don't you come talk to staff after?

[1:19:49] All right, Katie, you are our final one.

[1:19:54] Thank you.

[1:19:55] I support Twillock County residents and their efforts to protect their community from

[1:20:00] environmental harms, health concerns, loss of tax revenue, and more.

[1:20:05] My focus today is on the Castle Country Project area.

[1:20:10] The Anson Resources Lithium Project in Green River, if approved, would receive over $300 million

[1:20:17] dollars in funds from the state and federal government in UEPA, all public

[1:20:22] monies. UEPA's contribution of roughly $194 million far exceeds their standard

[1:20:30] rate for tax increment rebates. Why? Direct lithium extraction technology is

[1:20:37] new and speculative. While lithium is the chemical element of choice for storage

[1:20:43] batteries now, other batteries are under development that don't use lithium.

[1:20:50] What about competition from other lithium projects around Utah and the West?

[1:20:55] Some of which are also getting federal dollars.

[1:20:59] The Compass Mineral Project in UEPA's West Weaver Project area can produce more lithium and

[1:21:05] use this proven technologies.

[1:21:08] After the lithium brine is extracted and processed, it must be washed with fresh water.

[1:21:16] How much water will be used and will it then be contaminated?

[1:21:20] When the remaining brine is re-injected down the well into a higher aquifer, will it contaminate

[1:21:26] focal water supplies other wells in the area or the river?

[1:21:31] The green is part of the depleted Colorado River system.

[1:21:36] Our well about eight miles north of this site is drying out.

[1:21:44] How much power will be needed?

[1:21:46] What is the source and how will air quality be impacted?

[1:21:50] What about housing for construction workers?

[1:21:53] You mentioned military applications.

[1:21:56] Please explain.

[1:21:58] The presentation contains contradictions and financial errors

[1:22:02] that need to be corrected.

[1:22:05] Independent studies of water pollution and other impacts are needed to confirm answered

[1:22:10] claims before this begins.

[1:22:14] Thank you.

[1:22:15] Thanks, Katie.

[1:22:16] Appreciate it.

[1:22:18] All right.

[1:22:19] Thank you to those of you that commented.

[1:22:21] We're going to end public comment now.

[1:22:26] We are already passed our time, ma'am.

[1:22:28] And so we're just going to take in the ones that are in the audience today.

[1:22:32] All right. We're going to move on to Resolution 2028-41. That's our first order of business.

[1:22:43] Then will you read that for the record? Yes.

[1:22:45] I'm going to turn everybody's mic on.

[1:22:49] Yes. The motion is to adopt Resolution 2026-41,

[1:22:55] a resolution of Utah and then Board Authority Board, authorizing the use of tax increment for an incentive to answer resources.

[1:23:02] I'd like to make that motion.

[1:23:06] Thank you, Jonathan and the second, please.

[1:23:09] Happy to second that.

[1:23:10] Perfect.

[1:23:11] All right.

[1:23:11] All those in favor of resolution 26-41, please say aye.

[1:23:16] Aye.

[1:23:18] Jerry, I didn't hear your vote.

[1:23:21] Did he have to leave?

[1:23:22] Okay.

[1:23:23] All right.

[1:23:24] We got a corn.

[1:23:26] We got a corn.

[1:23:26] Okay.

[1:23:27] All right.

[1:23:28] I'll rule that motion passes unanimously.

[1:23:30] All right. Resolution 26-42, if you can read that for the record please.

[1:23:37] A resolution, a resolution 20-26-42, a resolution of the Utah Inland Port Authority Board

[1:23:43] adopting amendments to the Skyline Corridor Inland Port Project Area Plan.

[1:23:50] Motion on that resolution.

[1:23:54] You're not a role gen. I'm happy to make that motion.

[1:23:56] All right. All those in favor, please say aye.

[1:24:01] Aye.

[1:24:02] Rule that motion passes unanimously.

[1:24:05] All right. Resolution 26-43, Ben, if you'll read that for the record.

[1:24:10] Yes. Last but not least, Resolution 20-26-43, a resolution of the Utah End and Port Authority

[1:24:16] Board, adopting amendments to the Mineral Mountains in the Port Project Area Plan.

[1:24:22] Motion to that resolution.

[1:24:25] So moved.

[1:24:26] Thank you, Jonathan.

[1:24:26] And I'll second thank you representative color all those in favor please say aye aye

[1:24:32] I'll rule that motion passes unanimously all right with that

[1:24:35] Thank you for your attendance and do I have a motion to adjourn?

[1:24:42] That's a adjourn. That's not debatable. We are adjourned. Thank you. Thanks all

Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) Board Meeting

Transcript