Why Salt Lake City is seeking to sell over 950 acres near its airport to the state

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Salt Lake City is considering a proposal to sell over 950 acres near its airport to Utah's natural resources department.
• The sale aims to preserve Great Salt Lake wetlands through a conservation easement.
• A sale could be could completed later this year, pending City Council approval.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's capital city is seeking to sell nearly 1,000 acres of land it owns near Salt Lake City International Airport as part of a plan to preserve the Great Salt Lake's wetlands.

Under a proposal that Salt Lake City is pursuing, the Salt Lake City Department of Airports would sell over 950 acres located northwest of the airport to the Utah Department of Natural Resources. A conservation easement would be included, saving the wetlands from future development.

The land was recently valued at between $3.8 million and $5.1 million ahead of a sale that could be carried out later this year.

"This is a critical area," said Brady Fredrickson, senior planning director for the airport, as he briefed the Salt Lake City Council on the proposal on Tuesday.

The airport acquired the property, located less than 2 miles from the facility, in 1995 with the help of a Federal Aviation Administration grant. It helped pay for planting native flora and constructing irrigation areas, making up for what was lost when a new runway was constructed at the time, airport officials explained.

Salt Lake City currently spends approximately $70,000 annually on personnel, equipment and other expenses to maintain the property, per a memo sent to the Salt Lake City Council.

Joel Ferry, then the commissioner of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, approached Salt Lake City airport officials about land near the Great Salt Lake in 2024, seeking to expand wetlands protections near the lake. The department owns over 660 acres directly east of the massive airport parcel.

Bill Wyatt, the airport's director, wasn't sure at first because the airport isn't used to selling land, but brought the proposal to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall's office and other city officials who saw the benefits.

Zoning is barred on over half of the airport land through certain provisions, but a conservation easement would extend that protection everywhere. Some small maintenance structures could be permitted, but it would ensure that new developments like warehouses don't reach the wetlands in that space, a growing concern in recent years.

Utah Open Lands was roped into the discussions, as well. The land conservation nonprofit would accept the conservation easement, guaranteeing that the land set aside for wetlands conservation stays dedicated to that cause.

"We all came to the conclusion that this would be a really good marriage because this is what they do for a living," Wyatt said, adding that he believes the airport does a sufficient job managing the land, but it's not the airport's primary strength.

The city has already taken some steps to advance the process, declaring the property as surplus in July before having the land appraised last month. The estimated value of the land, which is federally required, is based on two completed appraisals, and a third is expected to be completed soon, airport officials said.

They're now seeking to receive consent from FAA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to sell the parcels to the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

The city is also weighing a public benefits waiver to remove an easement valuation fee of up to $471,000.

It's up to the City Council to hold a public hearing on the fee waiver and the plan to dispose of the surplus property, which is tentatively slated to be held on Oct. 6. A vote on the request could be made as early as Oct. 20.

If everything goes as planned, the property can be sold to the state with the conservation easement for Utah Open Lands included. The final land sale, subject to City Council approval, could happen as early as November, airport officials said.

Revenue from the sale would go back to the airport. It would likely seek to use that to help pay for a project to extend one of the airport's runways, which is currently being planned out, Wyatt said.

Any spending must follow FAA's airport improvement guidelines, he added.

The push to sell the land comes as the city and state have explored more "buffers" between Salt Lake City development and its namesake lake. For instance, the Utah Inland Port Authority announced in July that it will direct $7.5 million toward land conservation funding this year.

"This is an area that is under threat," Mendenhall said at the time.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Carter Williams

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Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.