Buffeted by wind, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez got a crash course on the Port of Ridgefield’s work on the city’s waterfront.
The port set up a special meeting by the water on June 26 as they welcomed Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania County, to port-owned property along Lake River. The congresswoman took a tour of the City of Ridgefield earlier that day where she got a first-hand look at the level of growth the city has experienced.
The area was initially the residence of Indigenous peoples prior to European settlement. It changed names, from Shobert’s Landing, to Union Ridge, then to Ridgefield when the postmaster at the time was a Confederate sympathizer and wanted the name changed, Port of Ridgefield CEO Randy Mueller said.
The port itself was formed after residents voted for its approval in 1940. Beginning in the 1960s, Pacific Wood Treating operated on leased port land until the company went bankrupt in 1993. The port commission at the time saw an ecological disaster on its hands and began a cleanup effort Mueller said took 23 years and $90 million to complete.
During the three decades it operated, Pacific Wood Treating was an economic driver for the city, Mueller noted.
“It was a kind of hub of economic activity, as far as bringing good, blue collar, family-wage jobs,” Mueller said.
Now, the port is looking to bring back that economic force to the majority of the 41 acres of the cleanup site. The port recently picked up efforts to create a plan for what development can take place on the rehabilitated property.
As Gluesenkamp Perez spoke with Mueller, a handful of residents rode or walked along the trail adjacent to where the port had set up for its meeting. Mueller noted the port dedicated eight acres of the waterfront property for a park. That area includes all of the land from the trail to the water, running from the boat launch to where the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge begins.
During the meeting, an Amtrak train passed along the nearby tracks, under the new overpass completed in 2021. Mueller said a train operator told him they have now increased their speeds going through the city to 79 miles per hour thanks in part to the overpass, which allows for closures of at-grade crossings that separate the waterfront from the rest of the city.
Mueller acknowledged the closure of at-grade crossings makes it harder for nearby residents to access the waterfront like they used to. He said the port has looked at the possibility of a pedestrian bridge that would allow for a reconnection in the future.
The port did a community survey last summer where about 15% of residents in the port district took part, Mueller said.
“We heard from folks who want more boating opportunities, folks for kayaking, folks for the trail and the refuge, some folks who want more restaurants,” Mueller said.
It is the port’s job to try and balance all of the different interests into what the development of the area could look like, Mueller said.
The congresswoman picked up on the invested feelings of the citizenry as work to develop the waterfront continues.
“Everybody feels like they own this,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “The sense of community, that’s really valuable.”
