Committee Advances Lee’s University of Utah Research Park Act

WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed the University of Utah Research Park Act out of committee. The proposed legislation would protect and preserve the University of Utah’s nearly 600-acre Research Park. Representative Blake Moore (R-UT) leads companion legislation in the House. 

“The University of Utah's Research Park has been an engine of growth and discovery for more than half a century," said Senator Lee. “This bill ensures that the university can continue building on that legacy without fear of retroactive reinterpretation of decades-old agreements."

The bill addresses legal uncertainties surrounding the university's use of land initially conveyed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1968 under the Recreation and Public Purposes (R&PP) Act. At that time, the university requested land on the Fort Douglas Military Reservation for academic and research use-a request approved and granted by BLM. Since then, the university has built a nationally recognized research park, housing over 50 companies and employing nearly 14,000 Utahns.

After decades of cooperative engagement between the university and the federal government, BLM has recently questioned whether the long-standing activities at Research Park are consistent with the original land patent under the R&PP Act. The University of Utah Research Park Act resolves that uncertainty by confirming that the development and operation of a university research park is a valid public purpose under the Act.

The legislation builds on previous versions negotiated with the Department of the Interior and is supported by the University of Utah and passed unanimously out of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources last Congress, with a technical revision to ensure flexibility in land use as authorized.

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