Tooele County residents expressed concerns to the Utah Inland Port Authority Board on Thursday regarding a developer's proposal for a large-scale data center near the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake, according to a September 11 report.
The group TooeleCARES delivered a letter signed by more than 1,100 Utahns requesting that the authority decline to authorize any public financing for the Interstate Technology Park Public Infrastructure District. This entity was created earlier this year to finance infrastructure within the 585-acre Tooele Valley project area located near Burmester Road and I-80.
The project area plan identifies data centers as a potential industry for incentives, though officials noted that no businesses are guaranteed such incentives. Ben Hart, executive director of the Utah Inland Port Authority, told the board that the authority is taking resident concerns seriously and will not move forward with anything until they receive a clear green light from the community.
Currently, plans for a data center in the area are on pause because Tooele County has halted the consideration of data center applications. County leaders are working on an ordinance to regulate data center development, which is expected to be reviewed by the planning commission in October and the County Council in November.
Developer Chuck Akerlow, principal owner of Zenith Development, has been seeking to build a data center on the south end of the project area. While Akerlow has previously suggested his project would require incentives and financing from the port authority, Hart stated that the authority does not consider the project to be active or moving forward at this time.
The development process is also subject to HB507, a law passed by Utah lawmakers that will ban cities and counties from providing incentives to large-load data centers unless they are located within a regionally significant development zone. Although that provision does not take effect until May 2027, the Utah Inland Port Authority has indicated they intend to push such projects through that specific process.
