Lawsuit challenges Utah Inland Port Authority as unconstitutional
UPHE, along with our friends at the Center for Biological Diversity, filed a lawsuit last week aimed at preventing the Utah Inland Port Authority (UIPA) from moving forward with plans to industrialize wetlands with the help of tax-payer money. Our lawsuit addresses a concern with the formation of the UIPA board, which we believe to be in violation of the state constitution.
“This is not just a technicality. The end result of this unconstitutional law has been the Utah Inland Port Authority flouting their statutory obligations to prioritize environmental and public health protection, and structuring their projects contrary to the public interest, and for the benefit of private developers,” our co-founder and president said of the lawsuit.
The suit is asking for a declaration that the state constitution was violated, a block against the authority board taking further action until it is “constitutionally formed,” and an invalidation of any previous actions taken by the authority board in its current form.
This is important because UIPA has been quickly approving thousands of acres of land across the state for industrial development, including more than 73,000 acres of Great Salt Lake biological wetlands. To make matters worse, taxpayers are footing the bill for land that developers likely wouldn’t spend their own money to build on.
Some of the developers even have connections to the legislature, making the deals more and more concerning. The Tooele Inland Port’s developers stand out among concerns on that front. Zenith Bolinder is owned by the father and uncle of Utah State Representative Bridger Bolinder and Charles “Chuck” Akerlow of Zenith Development. Akerlow spent a year in prison after pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts of failure to pay $620,000 in federal excise tax on diesel fuel, money that was unrecoverable because the corporation was defunct. Public records show that Zenith Bolinder failed to pay $62,840 in Tooele County property taxes in 2023. They were also unable to get a traditional bank loan to move their project forward, so UIPA gave Zenith Bolinder a one-year loan of $4.875 million at 3.47%.
“I applaud the lawsuit that has been filed to attempt to rein in the excesses of the UIPA.
They are an unaccountable body that is running roughshod over many stakeholders, to the benefit of private property owners and developers while using and risking public money. I believe it is an illegal enterprise in the way it has been organized and is operating.” – UPHE member, Doug Hasbrouck.
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