West Weber County is the only place Brent Davis, 74, has ever called home. Davis and his brothers are the fourth generation to farm and raise cattle on 60 acres of land in this largely rural corner of northern Utah.

Like so many communities in Utah, the area has seen new homes and development bring more traffic, and change. That change is now set to accelerate — with the Utah Inland Port Authority’s decision on Monday afternoon to approve a new project area on 9,000 acres of mainly agricultural land just down the road from Davis.

Weber County’s hope is that the site will become an “industrial development, advanced manufacturing and renewable energy hub,” Stephanie Russell, economic development director in Weber County, told the UIPA board on Monday.

The project area encompasses farmland and wetlands, and sits between the Harold S. Crane and Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Areas near the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake.

Earlier in the day, herons, American avocets, California gulls and ibis flew over and floated in ephemeral pools of water inside the project’s boundaries, as Ben Hart, executive director of the Utah Inland Port Authority, led reporters on a tour. “We’re going to take unprecedented measures to try and protect the wetlands up here,” Hart said.

Opponents say the new project will accelerate industrialization and the loss of agricultural lands, imperil wetlands and impact bird populations.

But port supporters argue it will bring needed jobs in a county where many have to commute to Salt Lake City for work. UIPA board members also say that their involvement in the project will guarantee more protections for wetlands than if landowners developed the site without their incentives. Turning West Weber into a port project will also unlock loans or tax dollars for the costs of new infrastructure, such as a sewer transmission system and wastewater treatment facilities.

To Davis, the port authority’s involvement made one thing clear. “It won’t be country anymore,” he said as he took a break from planting watermelons. “It will be citified.”

Environmental groups started raising alarms about a new port project last August when the proposed site was 903 acres. A few months later, days before the New Year holiday weekend, the port authority and Weber County posted a notice that said they planned to expand the port project to almost 9,000 acres.

During the Monday afternoon meeting, UIPA staffers outlined their plan to mitigate the potential harms to wetlands.

“The inland port recognizes the extent of ecological sensitivity throughout this project area, considering its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, as well as to the Harold Crane and Ogden Bay waterfowl management areas,” Mona Smith, UIPA’s environmental engineer, told the board.

In order for developers to unlock incentives, UIPA said, it will require them to develop an inventory of wetlands and require a 600-foot buffer between waterfowl management areas and construction. It also recommended that 3% of the tax revenue collected from development in the project area go towards wetland mitigation.

Over 25 years, UIPA expects the increased taxes will add up to $343 million, meaning roughly $10.3 million would go towards wetlands protection over that period of time.

“Having these types of arrangements, having a wetlands strategy that is more stringent than what the Army Corp of Engineers will put in place is a benefit, is long term more beneficial to that ecosystem than if we were just to walk away and do nothing,” said Joel Ferry, executive director for the Utah Department of Natural Resources and nonvoting UIPA board member.

Environmental groups remain skeptical.

“Currently the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) is the single biggest driver of wetland destruction and impairment in the Great Salt Lake Basin,” port critics, including Great Salt Lake Audubon and Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, wrote in a 2023 report.

“There wouldn’t be wetlands destruction without the inland port authority,” Deeda Seed, a staffer with the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a text to The Salt Lake Tribune. The project’s wetlands policy is an ineffective gesture to address “legitimate concerns about the harm to 28,000 acres of biological wetlands,” she wrote. The funds set aside for wetlands also are “insufficient and it’s unclear how they will implement it,” Seed wrote.

Without UIPA incentives for infrastructure, Seed and others argue, there wouldn’t be an economic incentive to develop the open lands.

But, responds UIPA director Hart, “there were already viable development plans up here in the area.”

Most of the designated West Weber Inland Port Project will be on land owned by the Marriott family. Another 300 or so acres in the project are owned by “PCC LAND LLC,” which shares the same address as real estate developer the Gardner Group, who purchased the property in 2023.

Although much of the new port project land is currently agricultural open space, it was zoned for industrial use in the 1960s, according to Hart, and Compass Minerals and Western Zirconium have long operated nearby.

“It’s no big surprise to me,” Davis said of the inland port project proposal, “but still, I hate to see it.”

Others felt caught off guard when they learned that the land could become the latest “inland port.”

Residents of Weber County sent county commissioners a letter on April 16 asking them to reevaluate the proposal and pause their plans. “We should not incentivize massive industrial development on the shores of Great Salt Lake, in an area containing some of the last remaining wetlands in northern Utah,” the residents wrote.

UIPA had not reached out to neighbors of the project, Hart told reporters, because the port’s involvement wouldn’t require a zoning change.

“Well,” Davis said after The Tribune informed him that UIPA voted to adopt the inland port. “I figured it would be that way.”

SALT LAKE CITY – “Opportunity” – it’s a word we’ve been hearing a lot recently as Utah lures professional sports teams and hopes to host another Olympics.

To accommodate those dreams, a sports and entertainment district will soon transform downtown Salt Lake City. And training facilities could reshape other communities across the state. Taxpayers will help foot the bill for the downtown transformation, to the tune of nearly a billion dollars over 30 years.

And lawmakers paved the way for a similar deal for an MLB stadium.

The long-term investment has many excited for Utah’s sports surge, including Shannon Bahrke, a two-time Olympic medalist who made Utah her home after the 2002 games.

“I mean, there’s so many reasons that I clap for that,” Bahrke said of the growth in sports. “But I think for me it’s all about the kids,” she said. Bahrke is looking to the future and opportunities for her own children.

“Oh my gosh, we just got the Royals, a women’s professional soccer team,” she said, cheering out loud with excitement. “Like my daughter can know what’s possible.”

Orson Colby has already benefited from access to training facilities close to home, a result of Utah’s first Olympic spotlight.

“I’m very grateful,” said the national youth luge champion from Riverton.

“They always say it takes 10,000 hours to get good at something,” he said. “People from the East Coast would only go for a two-week camp to train [in Lake Placid]… versus where I’m only like a 40-minute drive to Park City. And I think that’s been like a lot more help for my growth.”

The State of Sport

Jeff Robbins, President of the Utah Sports Commission, says the surge is not an overnight phenomenon.

“All the great things that you’re seeing take place right now are an effort that took place for over 20 years,” he said – efforts which began on the heels of the 2002 Winter Games.

The commission was created to attract sporting events of all kinds to our state.

Their favorite slogan: “The State of Sport.”

And that vision goes beyond NHL, NBA, Major League Soccer, or the Olympics. His office promotes a diversity of sports.

“We’ve got the premier lacrosse league that a lot of people don’t know about,” Robbins said.

And 45 cities across the state have hosted major events, including the Ironman in St. George, Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, AMA Supercross, Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert, and now the Black Diamonds of Major League Pickleball.

Mike Headrick spoke with Jeff Robbins, the president & CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, which was created to attract sporting events to the state. (Ken Fall, KSL TV)

“Almost 1,100 hundred events that we’ve partnered on since. About $4 billion in economic impact, and probably not far off $4 billion in global media value,” he said.

And Robbins wants folks to remember what arrived in June 1979.

“The Jazz. And I don’t think anybody would argue that hasn’t been incredibly good for Utah,” he said.

Olympic legacy

“Every one of our venues is in incredibly high use today. And most of it’s with our kids,” said Fraser Bullock, President & CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games.

Bullock played a big role in the 2002 Olympics and expects another Winter Games here in the future.

He says the introduction of new sports in our state will start the pipeline of future athletes.

“We had the Youth Sports Alliance in Park City, which was born out of the games, and now we have thousands of kids who have gone through this pipeline of winter sport.”

The venues built for the 2002 games still attract world cup events and athletes from around the globe. Bullock said over 30% of the athletes who competed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games live and train in Utah.

“When I see the NHL coming here, I’m thinking, ‘Think of all the ice sheets that are going to get built and all the kids that are going to start playing hockey.’”

Economically, he believes the benefit to the community is worth it. And he says fiscal responsibility was the keystone of a successful games in 2002.

“We did borrow a little bit at the beginning, $59 million dollars, which we paid back,” he said about the 2002 Winter Games. “We left behind a $76 million dollar endowment to fund the operation of those venues.”

That endowment was meant to last 20 years. Since that time, the state has had to step in. Over the past six years, the Utah Legislature has appropriated more than $94 million dollars to renovate and maintain the facilities. That number is expected to rise more than $140 million.

“For 2034, our objective is to leave behind a much larger endowment, so that that could fund everything – operations and maintenance – and the state wouldn’t have to put in any more money,” said Bullock.

But Bullock recognizes the big-league growth in Utah comes with big-league pressures.

“That’s why we need a comprehensive solution on housing, and more housing and transportation infrastructure to support a lot of people,” he said.

A positive for everyone?

“Just because you can grow, the question is: ‘Should you?’” asks Jason Godfrey, the CEO of Better City, an Ogden-based company which advises cities around the country on economic development, strategic planning, and growth.

Here in Utah, Better City has worked with communities from Brigham City to Tooele to Cedar City. It finished a major strategic study for the Wasatch Front Regional Council, and highlighted what it calls one of Utah’s weaknesses: reactive decision-making. According to the study, “Communities across the Region… are pushed to make decisions based on immediate or emerging circumstances, often driven by short-term considerations and goals.”

Godfrey believes Utah should get a gold medal for certain aspects of planning, like transportation, business growth and population projections.

However, “There’s a little bit of a blind spot when it comes to planning and looking at quality of life things,” he said.

Godfrey sees major concerns with cost of living, housing, and quality of life.

“Recreation, amenities, quality of life. That’s what dominates. You know, people really do want to have a good quality of life,” he said. “Is this going to be a net positive for everyone?”

Sports as a unifying force

Still, most in this widening state of sports welcome the growth and opportunity with their fingers crossed.

Bullock stressed success will be the result of a team effort, saying, “It takes not only the Ryan Smith and the Miller family, combined with the more limited corporate sponsorships we have

here, but also with the public, the Legislature, to put all the pieces together to make it work. And so, everybody in a community effort has to come together.”

“Time will tell how much return on investment we get,” said Robbins.

Bahrke, however, has no reservations.

“We can just do so much here and allowing that to flourish. I’m just so thankful,” said Bahrke. “Go Utah!” she cheered with her arms in the air.

Keyonte George has been named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, the league announced Monday.

The Utah Jazz guard was selected 16th overall by the Jazz in the 2023 draft and started 44 of the 75 games he appeared in during the season. He averaged 13 points, 4.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds, and was the only rookie to total more than 950 points while also dishing out more than 325 assists during the 2023-24 campaign.

Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs) earned All-Rookie First Team honors alongside Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder), Brandon Miller (Charlotte Hornets), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (Miami Heat) and Brandin Podziemski (Golden State Warriors).

George was joined on the All-Rookie Second Team by Dereck Lively II (Dallas Mavericks), GG Jackson II (Memphis Grizzlies), Amen Thompson (Houston Rockets) and Cason Wallace (OKC).

At the beginning of the 2023-24 season, it wasn’t clear how George would factor into the Jazz’s roster with a number of guards vying for rotation minutes. But it quickly became clear that George was more skilled and NBA-ready than expected and he earned a starting role eight games into the season.

After a minor foot injury sidelined him for a couple of weeks in December, George came back and played off the bench until he took over starting point guard duties Feb. 12; he averaged 15.8 points per game over the final 28 games of the season. The 20-year-old was also named to the NBA’s Rising Stars team during All-Star Weekend.

George received three All-Rookie First Team votes and 71 Second Team votes from the pool of reporters and broadcasters who vote on end-of-season awards.