News Releases Article
Port officials examine two Discovery Corridors
Originally published in The Reflector, 9 April 2003. Reprinted with permission.
By Heidi Wallenborn
There are two Discovery Corridors in Clark County.
One is an idea spawned by Port of Ridgefield officials about two years ago to targetwhere they wanted industrial growth. The other is part of Alternative Five to Clark County’s five alternative Growth Management Plan update, birthed last summer through a series of community meetings.
“Yes, it does confuse people,” said Port executive director Brent Grening of the double moniker.
Port officials’ version of Discovery Corridor pinpoints Port District land that could be used for industrial development between the Clark County fairgrounds and La Center.
According to Grening, .the Port’s corridor is a way to position for market what land along the freeway is in the Port District and what officials plan to do with it.
“I took the concept to the [Port’s] commissioners, drew an area on a map, called it Discovery Corridor, and they saw it as something the Port needed to pursue,” Grening said.
“The [Port’s] discovery corridor concept is a way to engage public discourse and raise awareness that north county is an economically viable asset,” Grening said. “What adds value is I-5 and our three freeway interchanges on the northern edge of the Vancouver metropolitan area.”
However, the Discovery Corridor that county commissioners have in mind is a 5,000-acre strip of county-owned land along I-5, with rough boundaries from Salmon Creek to north of La Center.
If adopted, the county’s Discovery Corridor would create a place for economic activity in the 1-5 corridor. It would also generate revenue to fill county coffers.
In March, five mayors of cities. in the county sent a letter- to the commissioners opposing the county’s Discovery Corridor idea. Battle Ground mayor John Idsinga said the plan forces rural communities ‘to become bedroom centers where people live but travel elsewhere for jobs, entertainment and shopping.
The mayors support commercial and industrial growth in individual :cities:rather than focusing on the 1-5 corridor.
Idsinga said building the corridor would force city populations to swell, but not provide for services that still need to be rendered,. such as police and fire protection, water, sewer and road maintenance.
“It’s detrimental. to cities any way you cut it,” Idsingasaid.
Although Grening disagrees with- the mayor’s: letter of opposition, he agrees with their concerns.
“I see their concern and I understand it,” Grening said of the mayors’ opposition to the county’s corridor idea. “But the land can’t sit vacant, and can’t be developed without a plan. We [city leaders] need to think and all agree on what to do out there.”
Grening said whatever is done in the county’s proposed corridor needs to be discovered and shaped by community leaders to come up with the same goals.
“What happens in [that] area is still critical, even if cities are successful,” Grening said. “We all need to decide what we are going to do with the land out there. That land is extremely attractive to residential, commercial and industrial development.”
“What Ridgefield and the Port does at the junction matters to La Center, Battle Ground and the county,” Grening added. “That Battle Ground does with a NE 219th St. interchange off the freeway” matters to everyone else, and so on.”
“There needs to be a maximum benefit for all or not everyone is well served,” Grening said. “We need to figure out how we as a community will manage and bring in maximum benefit over time. There needs to be a vision 20-50 years out for that area.”
Port’s vision
Port officials recently purchased 45 acres northeast of the 1-5 intersection at Pioneer St. directly behind the Country Café. The land is adjacent to a 30-acre tract the Port already owns which creates a continuous 75-acre parcel.
“We want to see some of that investment [Portland/Vancouver industrial growth] and get highly skilled jobs for our area,” Grening said. “We have property I believe they will be interested in, but we need to prepare.”
Grening said Port officials’ vision sees “tremendous opportunity and small risk” by adding “value-added jobs” for citizens such as engineering employment.
“The whole idea is to create an area that is livable, sustains the community by giving it a healthy economy,” Grening said. “If we don’t look ahead, plan, and communicate, what we will likely get is the mess we can see today at NE 134th St. That is not what the Port commissioners believe the residents in the Port district desire.”
