Could Utah’s inland ports help provide low-income housing? What a new bill would do

Help for low-income Utahns seeking to become homeowners near Utah Inland Port Authority project areas could be coming under a bill advanced by state lawmakers Wednesday.

State law already permits the use of up to 10% of the general differential revenue collected through inland port developments to be used to pay for affordable housing in or near one of the dozen project areas throughout Utah, including 16,000 acres in the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake County.

But SB250, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper, gets more specific, calling for the revenue to be used to “assist low-income individuals and families who would qualify for income targeted housing to achieve homeownership, or retain homeownership, within a 15-mile radius of the project area.”

Cullimore told the Deseret News the new language “expands this to more home ownership,” as opposed to helping Utahns get into apartments or other rental properties. He said it’s part of the Utah Legislature’s efforts this session to add more “little tools, here and there” to address the state’s housing needs.

“We need all types of products in the housing market. But we’ve actually seen a pretty big proliferation of rental housing,” the majority leader said. “Our rents are still high, but they’ve actually stabilized. But home ownership has not stabilized. So I think the focus will be on more, what incentives can we do for attainable type home ownership housing.”

His bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee and now heads to the full Senate.

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, asked Cullimore about limiting the housing that could be funded to within a 15-mile radius of an inland port project area.

“For the inland port, it’s all permissive,” Cullimore answered, adding that “because oftentimes an inland port area that might be subject to tax increment financing may or may not be appropriate for housing, it just gave them a little bit more parameters to do housing should they choose to do it.”

He said the option to use the revenues for housing could be transferred to a local housing authority or other nonprofit.

McCay also wanted to know if the inland port authority could zone property to develop low-income housing. When he was told that’s not the case, McCay said, “that’s good to know. I just wasn’t sure how we were expanding the scope of the inland port.”

Utah Inland Port Authority Executive Director Ben Hart told the Deseret News that housing “is in the conversation in every project area.”

Hart said the inland port authority did not seek the change in the law. Nor has it taken a position on the bill, although Hart noted he doesn’t “see any red flags. If it was compulsory and we were being forced to do something, we would probably take a little stronger stand one way or the other.”

Some entities that share in the inland port project revenues are already contributing funds to local housing authorities, he said.

As for housing fits into the inland port authority’s mission, Hart said that’s left “up to the collaborative processes for cities to work through. Obviously, we’re primarily industrially oriented, so trying to fit and co-locate housing nearby can be a little bit difficult. But several of our project areas are working to include housing.”

The inland port authority “may not necessarily provide financial support for those efforts but it’s certainly something that we are pro, and for. Because housing and workforce go together. Workforce is the lifeblood of the economy and so having well-planned communities really makes sense,” he said, expressing interest in supporting “economic areas of strength wherever we can. And that definitely includes housing.”

Still, how money is used in the project areas is often “predetermined. So it’s hard for us to go back and say we’re going to pry 10% loose from other projects,” Hart said. “We’re already very focused on industrial properties. We already are focused on logistics projects.”