If you ordered a Great Salt Lake license plate, you should get it within four to six weeks. But it might not look like you expected it to.
The license plate design review board approved it Monday. It’s a white Utah plate with five characters, like existing specialty plates. On the left side is a rectangular logo that shows a pelican flying in front of a blue lake, with a mountain and the sun in the background. Across the bottom are the words Restore, Preserve, Protect.
It’s simpler than a proposed design where the mountain and lake stretch the full width of the plate.
The state Office of Tourism is working on branding that will regulate how new license plate designs can look. That needs to be finalized before the board can approve full-plate designs.
The Great Salt Lake plate sponsors decided to go ahead with the original design because they didn’t want to make people wait any longer, said Republican Rep. Paul Cutler, who cosponsored the 2023 legislation to launch the Great Salt Lake license plate. Plus, there is no guarantee the proposed full-plate design will be approved as-is.
“If we knew a timeline for the other, for the end-to-end design, we would do that,” Cutler said. “Colors haven't been approved. Design hasn't been approved. It's stretching out to be a very, very long process.”
People who paid for the plate want to show their support for the Great Salt Lake, he said.
Funds raised will go to the Sovereign Lands Management Account to enhance preservation of the Great Salt Lake watershed and ecosystem.
Republican Rep. Jordan Teuscher is on the license plate design review board. The Great Salt Lake plate got stuck in the middle of the redesign process, he said, so going back to the original design is the best compromise.
“We're not trying to drag our feet in any respect,” he said, but new design standards are a big change and “we want to do in the right way.”
For their part, Cutler and his wife both plan to sport the new plate.
“And if next year, we get a better looking end-to-end, edge-to-edge process for printing plates, then I'll upgrade,” he said.
Everyone who paid for a Great Salt Lake plate will receive the approved one in the mail. If a full-plate design is approved once new standards are established, anyone with the plate can switch to the new version “for a small fee to cover the cost of the replacement,” said Jason Gardner of the Utah State Tax Commission.
New special plates in Utah require 500 orders before going to production. Gardner said actively registered Great Salt Lake plates would count toward that requirement for making a new full-plate design.
More than 600 Great Salt Lake plates have been ordered.
Macy Lipkin is a Report for America corps member who reports for KUER in northern Utah.
