Port of Camas-Washougal commissioners have accepted the Waterfront Advisory Committee’s vision for Riverwalk, and have volleyed the ball into the developers’ court.
The 13-member, port-appointed advisory committee spent the last eight months brainstorming what features it would like to see included in the proposed waterfront development.
The committee presented its vision of shops and restaurants, an amphitheater, hotel and conference center, parks and trails, condos and office spaces to commissioners in early June. It also emphasized a desire to protect the area’s history and scenic views, provide good waterfront access and boating facilities and add art installations and monuments.
Many of the suggestions are found in waterfront developments across the Northwest, including Everett, Bellingham, Vancouver, B.C., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Portland’s South Waterfront.
Commissioners agreed with the vision and have charged private developers Riverwalk on the Columbia LLC with incorporating those features into their conceptual plans for the $300 million project.
One of the developers, John McKibbin, said the group of investors couldn’t be more pleased with the process and recommendations.
Many are those the developers have planned for all along, McKibbin said, adding that the challenge is determining if they all are feasible and cost-effective.
Riverwalk has employed a slew of consultants, architects and open-spaces specialists to formulate the conceptual plan.
“This is going to be a fluid, open process,” McKibbin said. “We need something we can all buy into. It will have to pencil and reflect community values. It has to be built for the community – it’s their waterfront.” He declined to name the consultants so far employed.
Once completed, Riverwalk will present the conceptual plans to port commissioners, and then both sides will look at how the project can actually come to fruition, said port Executive Director Sheldon Tyler.
Development will likely be phased and take up to five years. At this point, the port owns just more than half of the 65 acres developers hope to use for the waterfront community.
“Whether all of that land will be acquired is a question mark,” Tyler said.
But the development will be master planned, so that as land is acquired, it can be incorporated seamlessly, McKibbin said.
Between now and the end of the year, both sides will draw up a master development agreement that will lock in details of just how the partnership will play out.
