Unfortunately many in the conservation community would prefer to export living wage jobs out of our region to other parts of the country. Unemployment is a weapon of mass destruction. Employed Portlanders are becoming an endangered species.
West Hayden Island (“WHI”) was brought into the Urban Growth Boundary for the Portland metropolitan region in 1983 to serve marine industrial needs.

The west side of Hayden Island is not currently included in the City of Portland boundaries. Annexation by the city is a requirement in order for urban services to be provided to the site.

The City of Portland is conducting a public process to explore annexation and creation of a long-range land use plan for West Hayden Island. West Hayden Island is an undeveloped 800+ acre site, located west of the BNSF Railroad.

The City of Portland’s economic opportunities analysis demonstrates that the city does not have an adequate supply of industrial land over the next 20 years. West Hayden Island development offers the opportunity for the City of Portland to capture living wage waterfront jobs and the revenue associated with them. Local waterfront industrial land is needed. There is an identified scarcity of waterfront industrial lands within the City of Portland per the city’s industrial land inventory and the City’s Draft Economic Opportunity Analysis.

Additionally, the city’s “Portland Plan,” a required land use planning process that is currently being conducted, identifies the need for over 600 acres of industrial land within city limits. In my opinion the shortfall is in excess of 1,500 acres and we have less than a five-year supply of land. Portland currently only has five sites in excess of 25 acres that are in a “shovel ready” condition.

The environmentalists are proposing that Oregon outsource good paying industrial jobs to Vancouver or worse yet, completely out of our region. How does exporting jobs out of Portland help Oregon when all tax revenue would go to Olympia or other states? WHI is one of the few locations that provides deep water for ships, access to rail and is in close proximity to existing infrastructure investments and homes for workers.

As I see it, the social pollution of relentless human poverty and Portland’s continued unemployment above the national average for the past 20 years is far more frightening than the environmental “what ifs” that preservationists use to strangle our economy.

I believe we can achieve a balance of uses on West Hayden Island for job creation and it can be done in such a way as to minimize impact to residents and the environment.

Brian Owendoff has been involved in commercial real estate leasing, development and construction for approximately 20 years, and has lead teams with three of the largest full service national real estate companies in the United States. Brian is Senior Vice President of Capacity Commercial Real Estate LLC a firm that provides an array of advisory services to help owners, occupiers, developers and financial institutions make better real estate decisions. Brian is also a member of the West Hayden Island Advisory Committee and he can be reached at 503.201.9590 or Brian@capacitycommercial.com.