Port of Portland drops plan to develop West Hayden Island
In a move that strikes an economic
blow to the Portland metro area, the
Port of Portland on Jan. 8 withdrew its
request for Portland to annex West
Hayden Island.
The Port had planned to develop
300 of the site’s 814 acres into a deep
water marine terminal, creating thou-
sands of family-wage jobs. The re-
maining acreage was to be set aside for
habitat restoration and recreational
amenities.
The island, which the Port obtained
in 1994 from PGE, is located on the
Columbia River just west of the Inter-
state 5 bridge in unincorporated Mult-
nomah County. The island was brought
into the Metro urban growth boundary
in 1983 with the intention of building a
large cargo facility.
Annexation and development was
supported by the Columbia Pacific
Building Trades Council, the Oregon
AFL-CIO, the Northwest Oregon La-
bor Council, and the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Environmental groups such as the
Audubon Society oppose development.
They successfully blocked annexation
for industrial development in 1999.
“Where the f@#% are they going to
come up with 300 to 400 acres of ready
industrial land?” asked John Mohlis,
executive secretary or the Oregon
Building and Construction Trades
Council. “And you can print that.”
Port of Portland Executive Director
Bill Wyatt said the project lacked sup-
port at Portland City Hall.
“The terms under which annexation
has been proposed by the city would
simply render a future development on
the property impossible,” Wyatt said in
a press release. “We understand from
the mayor that Portland City Council is
unwilling to take action to modify these
proposals at this time, so we cannot jus-
tify the investment of more time and
money into the process.”
Tom Chamberlain, president of the
Oregon AFL-CIO and a governor-ap-
pointed Port commissioner, blamed the
city for the breakdown.
In a guest column for the Oregonian
newsaper, Chamberlain wrote:
“I, along with others watching this
process, began to wonder if the city’s
goal was not development but the abil-
ity to maintain land in industrial re-
serves that they knew would never be
developed,” he wrote.
“Now, our city leaders must face up
to the consequences of preventing the
creation of good jobs on West Hayden
Island. They must explain to out-of-
work Portlanders how we are going to
create the good jobs we need to provide
a strong base for a growing region.
“Mayor Charlie Hales talks a lot
about livability. A good job is the first
step to creating a livable community.”
In the column Chamberlain pointed
out that the Metro region has only
seven sites available for industrial de-
velopment that are over 100 acres.
Most of the sites include significant
challenges before they would be ready
for industrial development, including
expensive brownfield cleanup, lack of
access to roads and utilities, and the ag-
gregation of parcels under multiple
ownerships.
“West Hayden Island would have
been one of the most usable parcels of
its size in our region once annexed by
the city of Portland. It was uniquely
valuable as the only option available to
expand Oregon’s grain exports and give
Oregon businesses another option to
grow their exports. Without this land
we don’t have another place to expand
our Portland port facilities,” he wrote.
Chamberlain said that without
growth in its industrial base, Oregon
will continue to fall harder, and recover
more slowly, with each recession.
“Portland’s economy continues to
depend on service-sector jobs, which
don’t attract the outside capital or pay
the high wages that we need to create a
strong base for our local economy,” he
wrote.
The City of Portland has been con-
ducting a public process to explore an-
nexation and creation of a long-range
land-use plan for West Hayden Island
since 2009.
In July 2013, the Portland Planning
and Sustainability Commission voted
7-3 in favor of annexing West Hayden
Island into the City. Their recommen-
dation reportedly would have added
$30 million to $40 million in costs to
mitigate environmental damage.
Hyatt said that while the Port was
agreeable to mitigation exceeding state
and federal requirements, the City’s
proposed annexation terms simply
made the 300 acres unviable in the mar-
ketplace.
“This is a disappointing and unfor-
tunate outcome on several levels, in-
cluding lost economic opportunity for
our region, implications for current and
future land use planning, and lost social
and environmental benefits,” Wyatt said
in the press release. “Despite this ac-
tion, I believe that West Hayden Island
remains viable for the future as an ideal
place to grow the city’s tax base and
family jobs while providing space for
public recreation and wildlife habitat.”
Mayor Hales’ office told Willamette
Week the mayor doesn’t want to see
West Hayden Island annexation revis-
ited any time soon.
“He does not,” Dana Haynes, the
mayor’s spokesperson, told WW. “The
proposal meant hundreds of jobs, many
years in the future ... West Hayden Is-
land was a spot, but not the spot, for job
growth in the city.”
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