Less than five minutes into the Inland Port Authority Board’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, Ethan Peterson stood up in his chair with a megaphone. “Board members,” he said, interrupting a conversation about the board’s budget. “You haven’t been listening, you haven’t been responding, and engaging in anti-scientific and environmentally destructive behavior, so we’re going to have a people’s port meeting.”
He and about 15 other community activists proceeded with signs to the front of the school gymnasium at North Star Elementary School, which is located less than a mile from the massive distribution hub development planned for Salt Lake City’s northwesternmost area.