News Releases Article
Ridgefield Port sets future look
Originally published in The Reflector, 18 July, 2001. Reprinted with permission.
By Heidi Wallenborn
Ridgefield resident Roy Garrison said he likes the look of what the Port of Ridgefield plans to do at the Lake River Industrial site.
“I see some of the things we talked about on the bus tour,” Garrison told the commissioners during an open house meeting July 10. “I appreciate you listening to the community.”
Under scrutiny was the Port’s Master Plan of development for its land--some of it undeveloped, some already in use.
The open house at the Community Center did not draw as many people as the commissioners and staff from the J.D. White Co. would have liked to see, however.
The meeting’s purpose was to provide one last opportunity for community input to the design of the Master Plan.
A handful of people wandered in, such as resident John Young, who decided he’d skip the Weight Watcher’s meeting next door.
But what Young saw of the Port’s plan, he liked.
“It looks like a good idea to me,” he said. “There is a lot of thought put into it. What about magnet tenants?”
Commissioner Joe Melroy said Port staff has some ideas of what they’d like to do, and will attempt to market the various sites to developers, meeting criteria already set on the table by the plan.
According to Brent Grening, executive director of the Port, I the plan provides a statement of the future and a process of how the Port will build its future over the next 15-20 years, in conjunction with its comprehensive plan.
Strategies include the following:
- Redevelop Lake River property as an employment center with diversity of job types and higher wage jobs.
- Develop, lease, or sell the Port’s three remaining undeveloped parcels at the Ridgefield Junction Industrial Park.
- Develop the 30 acre Port property at the Ridgefield Junction as an employment center with industrial and office flex buildings.
- Identify investment opportunities for the Port to control by option or purchase 100-200 acres of properties along the 1-5 corridor and interchanges within the Port District.
Clean-up first
“There’s a dark cloud hanging over [the plan],” resident Gary Adkins said: “the clean-up. Is it possible to do something with the north pole yare in, say, the next two years?”
“Yes,” said commissioner chair Roy Randel. “We will establish our plan, then market it, and go forward aggressively with those businesses that fit in our plan.”
“Unfortunately, the clean-up will drive a lot of what wit do down there [Lake River Industrial Park],” said commissioner Bruce Wiseman.
Forty acres of Port land near Lake River will undergo steam remediation treatment, ridding the area of accumulated underground toxic contamination left over from now defunct Pacific Wood Treating, a former tenant.
Currently, preliminary work is being done, with treatment to begin in earnest possibly by the end of the year.
Afterwards, the site will be redeveloped as a waterfront mixed use development center with improved boat launch facilities, a small boat marina with uncovered boat storage, a day dock, dry dock repair and other businesses to support commercial activities, said Ron Mah, senior planner for the J.D. White Co.
In addition, a public shoreline access trail will be added to the potential connections to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and downtown Ridgefield.
Roy Randel said the purpose of redevelopment at the site is not only to bring long-term revenue to the Port, but to bring people into town.
“It’s about getting people to come past the end of the dead-end road [Pioneer St.],” he said.
Wiseman agreed.
“With something like this, I think people will detour,” he said. “You don’t have to be on the Refuge and to enjoy the Refuge.”
The commissioners are expected to give final approval to the Plan by mid-August in a public meeting.
For more information, call the Port office at 887-3873.
