Many eyes are on West Hayden Island

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West Hayden Island was brought into the Portland-metro urban growth boundary in 1983 to meet the region’s marine industrial land needs. Thirty years later, the city of Portland is still debating what to do about it.

West Hayden Island is approximately 800 acres along the Columbia River, between Oregon and Washington, along the Interstate 5 corridor. The eastern half of the island is mostly developed with a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses. The western half is undeveloped and was purchased by the Port of Portland from Portland General Electric for future marine use.

West Hayden Island has been designated as both a Regionally Significant Industrial Area and a Habitat Conservation Area of moderate value. The port’s plan is to put 300 of the 800 acres on the island to industrial use, and protect the remaining 500 acres for habitat and open space use.

Before the port can use West Hayden Island for any urban use, the city must agree to annex and rezone the property. The terms under which annexation and future development can occur are what lie at the heart of the debate. The devil is in the details, and when it comes to West Hayden Island, there are plenty of details.

Earlier this month, at the most recent Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission meeting, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staffers identified nearly 100 separate questions and approximately 19 issue areas that need to be addressed, such as environmental mitigation, community health impacts, economic need, and Vancouver, Wash. as an alternative. BPS staffers and the commission are working hard to sort through the details and are going the extra mile to ensure that all relevant stakeholders have been heard.

The commission soon will debate these questions as it prepares its recommendation to incoming Mayor Hales and the Portland City Council in early 2013. Meanwhile, it may be helpful to keep a few practical considerations in mind.

First, West Hayden Island provides the city an opportunity to significantly reduce its shortfall of industrial land. The city’s Economic Opportunities Analysis recently concluded that the city has only about 60 percent of the industrial land it needs, with a shortfall of about 630 acres (mostly marine industrial).

We see marine terminal development up and down the Columbia River (Longview and Kalama, Wash.) as a result of the deepened channel, and it is common knowledge that some of these developments would have been in Portland if there were marine terminal parcels large enough. The port’s proposal to set aside 300 of the 800 acres on West Hayden Island for industrial use can significantly reduce this shortfall.

Some people have suggested that a shortage of industrial land should be accepted as a fact of life for cities like Portland, and that companies that need space for marine industrial use should move across the river to Vancouver – or elsewhere. This is obviously a misguided idea, because it has been identified by BPS as one of the 19 key issues and seems to have the attention of the commission.

Second, overly aggressive mitigation requirements can create unintended consequences. When marine industrial uses cannot avoid impacts to resource values, these impacts are usually replaced in-kind (i.e., mitigated).

Mitigation banks are helpful tools, where they exist, because credits can be purchased from these banks to replace needed resource values. But in the absence of such tools, mitigation typically occurs on other industrial land along the river because of its lower cost. If mitigation ratios are high, and mitigation banks do not exist, mitigation requirements on marine industrial land often result in the conversion of usable industrial land to mitigation sites.

The city needs to strike a careful balance so that usable industrial land is not converted to mitigation sites. Reasonable mitigation ratios and mitigation banks will help reduce these unintended consequences.

Third, West Hayden Island provides the city with an opportunity to focus on its top priorities with practical solutions. We all know that Portland prides itself on its reputation for sustainability, and rightfully so. Some see West Hayden Island as an opportunity to create the greenest and most sustainable port facility in the world, or at least along the West Coast.

Amid these laudable goals are some significant realities and other top priorities. For example, in 2012, Oregon gained only 18,700 jobs – one for every eight residents seeking work. The port is seeking a large parcel of land on West Hayden Island to attract and retain important “traded-sector” firms to the city. Increasing traded-sector work is a top priority for both the city and the state because of the multiplier effect it creates.

Some people say that ports don’t employ many people and the working waterfront is yesterday’s technology, located in the wrong place. I say, tell that to the 40,000 people who work along Portland’s waterfront and who rely on those businesses to support themselves and their families.

We should remember that much of what we buy and most of the fuel that powers our cars, buses, trucks, trains and planes, arrives in Oregon and is distributed by businesses and people who work along the river. Those basic facts are not likely to change any time soon.

Simply put, the people who work along the waterfront in Portland help keep Oregon moving. They also provide us with products and services we use every day, some that we simply cannot live without. So, as the city works its way through the 100 or so questions and 19 issues associated with the West Hayden Island decision, I hope they also remember what really happens along the working waterfront in a 21st century city like Portland, and why a practical solution is so important.

Phil Grillo is a partner in the Portland office of Davis Wright Tremaine. He represents the Working Waterfront Coalition. Contact him at 503-778-5284 or at [email protected].