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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah National Guard is taking major steps to develop 27 properties across Utah, totaling over 24,000 acres, into commercial developments to fund capital projects.
Officials from the Guard brought the request to the Military Installation Development Authority board earlier this year. On Aug. 22, the board approved a project area that will allow a portion of revenue from the sites to be used in support of capital projects.
The plans for these properties, an archipelago of 24 noncontiguous sites held in trust by the Utah State Armory Board, along with three held by the city of Tooele or the federal government, are "very conceptual at this point," the board's deputy director, Ariana Farber, said during an initial project presentation June 11.
The board anticipates more areas will be added to the project area plan by the end of the year.
"This is significant for the state of Utah and the National Guard, economically and I think for the defense of the nation," said Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who is on the board.
The development authority was created three decades ago when Hill Air Force Base was in danger of a shutdown.
In 1995, during major Department of Defense downsizing efforts, Hill appeared on a list of installations under consideration for closure. The department's final list bypassed the base, instead shutting down installations in San Antonio and Sacramento.
The Military Installation Development Authority, which has the power to distribute legislative appropriations and issue bonds, created the Falcon Hill project area to help Hill Air Force Base remain resilient to economic pressures and competitive with other installations, to keep jobs and revenue in the state. A 2019 economic impact report says Hill has a $3.7 billion impact on the state's economy annually.
The original project area continues to function as a partnership between the land-use authority, the Air Force and private developers. The research park within that area has grown to become the largest enhanced-use lease in the Air Force, according to Hill's website.
"We've seen over time, MIDA (Military Installation Development Authority) can really leverage the things we have available to us across the many entities," said Gary Harter in response to the June presentation. Harter is the executive director of Utah's Department of Veterans and Military Affairs and a member of the board.
"The Guard is in competition for mission, as well," he said.
Right now, the lands across the state are "terribly underutilized," Kristin Kenney Williams, the board's military operations director, told KSL. They are all tax-exempt but have generated zero dollars to date. The Guard doesn't yet have any concrete plans for development, but it has a number of projects in need of potential future revenue.
The No. 1 priority, Farber told the board, is the entry control gate at Camp Williams, off Redwood Road in Bluffdale.
Several soldiers have been injured in car accidents, according to Williams, and the major traffic problems are only getting worse as hundreds of soldiers are in the process of being relocated from the closing Fort Douglas.
The Guard also wants to move aircraft assets from its West Jordan facility, build a new hangar in Cedar City, build a new fitness center at Camp Williams, a readiness center in Tooele and a bullpen facility in Mantua.
"Military services nationwide have had to contend with increased budgetary restraints that force our installations to remain outdated and unsupportive of a National Guard service that must maintain a 21st-century war-fighting posture," Dan Schoenfeld, Utah National Guard deputy director for state operations, said in a prepared statement.
A payment-in-kind funding mechanism is being considered, similar to that used in the Falcon Hill project area. "It'll evolve and maybe take shape over time as we identify projects," Williams told KSL. "It will definitely be a multi-year effort," she said, but in the past, "results have been highly highly successful."
