Citizens to advise Riverwalk project
John McKibbin and the principals of Riverwalk LLC know exactly what they don’t want to see along the waterfront at the Port of Camas/Washougal. No strip malls. No fast food chains. No big box stores. In contrast, the group of real estate investors envisions parks, walkways, homespun retail outlets, professional office space and a boater’s paradise.
"We’re going to have a ton of open space and a community feel," McKibbin said. "(Community members) are building their own asset there, their own gem."
Of course, the vision is contingent upon whether the group gets its way. To this end, a collection of citizens will be assembled to devise a plan for development of the property. Formation of the advisory committee, approved Sept. 3 by the Port of Camas Authority, will consist of 12 appointed community members. The appointees will be announced Sept. 18. McKibbin said he hopes the committee will recommend sound financial drivers.
"The port wants to generate revenue," he said. "We’d like to see some form of retail consistent with the needs of the community. To do this, we’ll need economic drivers, so hopefully you’ll have some form of professional office space there, so we can generate lease-hold tax and sales tax."
Meanwhile, the city of Washougal commissioned its own report to determine what types of retail would be supported by the community. The findings revealed what amounts to a shopping mall, with chain stores such as Foot Locker, Banana Republic and Sanrio Surprises. This is not what the Riverwalk group has in mind.
"That’s not what I call open by any means," McKibbin said. "It’s not a good use of that location."
"The port of Camas/Washougal is the only pleasure boat marina in Washington south of Olympia where a 50-foot boat can dock," said Mark Benson, one of the principal members of the LLC. "And the port is right next to the Columbia Gorge, and we’re the front door."
So, the Riverwalk group could be proposing a plan to turn the property into the Friday Harbor of Clark County.
"If this thing gets done right, it will be the place to go in the county," Benson said. "It’s doable if we can find a master plan that everyone wants to buy into."
Estimates for the price of the project sit at around $400 million. That kind of price tag would no doubt take a hefty amount of community backing. As it stands, there are many schools of thought on what should be done with the property. Some would like to build large boat parking lots and stacked dry storage facilities, but McKibbin says those ideas would rob the location of its natural beauty, and compromise the recently dedicated one-acre historic park called Parker’s Landing.
"We’re going to make (the property) not only visible, but accessible," McKibbin said.
A 2001 study by the port generated recommendations ranging from building a new launch ramp to designing what was called a promenade/boardwalk and shop area, with a bulleted list of possible types of merchants: coffee shop, T-shirts, deli, ice cream, restaurant, grocery, performing arts facility.
The study also recommended making the port a "calling port" for small cruise ships, and even suggested building an RV park.
McKibbin pointed out that such recommendations are starkly similar to the vision of the Riverwalk group.
"There are a lot of ideas," he said. "The (committee) would take all of these ideas and crunch them into a single vision."
Port consultant and former Port of Vancouver executive director Byron Henke is receptive to the ideas put forth by McKibbin and his partners.
"I think the concept of some economic development along the shoreline is worth a good, strong look-see," he said. "There seems to be a lot of interest in the committee."
Henke said any development on the property should be commercial.
"It’s waterfront property, number one," he said. "So you don’t want to put warehouses there or parking lots. If this idea is a good application, then it deserves a fair look."
The committee, once appointed, is expected to start working on a usable plan over the next six months.
"We’re on the right track," said McKibbin.
