Nearly 160 years ago, settlers forged the Columbia River, established a territorial government and the Vancouver Barracks became the largest military installation west of the Mississippi.
In 1860, the military a built road extending north from Fort Vancouver to Olympia and Seattle that carried Wells Fargo stagecoaches, farming equipment for emerging settlements and gold-seeking pioneers. Eventually, that road became part of the Pacific Highway auto trail and in 1925 came to be known as U.S. Highway 99, the primary route along the West Coast.
It developed a commercial culture of small motels, drive-in carhop restaurants, a skating rink, bowling alley, mini-golf and full-service gas stations, according to Clark County.
But when the interstate system was authorized in the mid-1950s by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Highway 99 failed to meet the guidelines for an interstate.
The completion of Interstate 5 in the mid-1960s had a profound impact on Highway 99.
Today, it is characterized by a mix of big box stores and older locally owned businesses, overhanging utilities, distracting signage and plenty of concrete.
“It’s taken 60 years to get where it is now,” said County Planner Michael Mabrey. “It’s not going to turn around overnight.”
For nearly eight years, a group of concerned residents, businesses and property owners called Team 99, has been working toward revitalization of Highway 99.
The group – an off-shoot of the Hazel Dell/Salmon Creek Business Assoc., said Chair Brad Lothspeich – approached county planners for help and together they are now inches away from a subarea plan to establish a new vision, land use and guiding principles and implementation strategies to guide future growth in the corridor.
The proposed four-square-mile Highway 99 subarea extends from the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Bridge (near Northeast 63rd Street) to the south, I-5 to the west, Northeast 134th Street to the north and the Bonneville Power Administration transmission line right of way to the east.
“It’s pretty rare to have a community-initiated planning development, but that’s how it should be,” Mabrey said.
Crafting the vision
The Board of Clark County Commissioners met earlier this year to review four alternative concepts for the plan, and instructed county planners to focus on the fourth alternative, “Together We Travel-Mixed Use Transit Community,” as a preferred alternative.
It reflects a future land use pattern that supports high capacity transit, the establishment of gateway and entry features, parking management and walkability.
Its focus is to create an urban environment within the subarea that is more human-scaled and pedestrian-oriented and to ensure that future development provides housing choices, reduces automobile trips and maximizes efficient use of public facilities and services, according to the county.
If adopted, the county transportation capital facilities plan will be updated to reflect public projects to be undertaken within the 20-year planning horizon, including improvements such as the completion of sidewalk connections, improving bike lanes and gateway treatments.
The plan also directs the county to undertake the development of a parking management plan next year. The goal of the management plan is to reduce the amount of land required for parking facilities and reduce auto use.
The subarea plan will be presented to the Planning Commission at two work sessions – Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 – then will go before the Three Creeks Advisory Council on Nov. 13, the Planning Commission again on Nov. 20 and ultimately the Board of County Commissioners on Dec. 16.
Clark County will accept public comment through Nov. 14 on the plan and draft environmental impact statement.
If and when the plan is adopted, regulatory and programmatic changes will be adopted to implement the plan to encourage a mix of uses within the corridor, promote sustainability and provide more design standards for development.
To implement the subarea plan, Clark County planners are eying a hybrid form-based code, which would regulate land development and set clear controls on the building form.
Encouraging redevelopment
But however strong the county and stakeholders’ vision, development and redevelopment takes investment from the private side.
“Change comes incrementally,” said County Planner Colete Anderson. “The county’s role is to set the stage, translate the vision into code and back it up with public investments. If they know their neighbor is going to have to follow design standards, they can go ahead with confidence and make investments.”
The one word Anderson and Mabrey said they have heard consistently throughout the planning process is ‘predictability.’
Ron Frederiksen, president of Vancouver-based RSV Construction Services Inc., made that investment with the $4 million 88th Street Square. As 88th Street Retail LLC, Frederiksen and his wife Terry Murphy developed the 18,000-square-foot retail project at 1218 N.E. 88th St., parts of which are owned by Vancouver-based Riverview Community Bank and Wisconsin-based Batteries Plus.
But besides those two owner occupiers, the retail center is empty. Frederiksen said the space is not yet being marketed because “there is no retail market right now. National tenants are sitting on their hands, watching.”
Nevertheless, Frederiksen sees his investment as a good one and said the proposed subarea plan and forthcoming zoning standards will have an affect.
“(County Administrator) Bill Barron said about 88th Street Square, ‘Ron, we are citing your project as an example of a visionary investment that needs to happen in Hazel Dell. It has great curb appeal and it’s a top quality project. That’s what we need in that area,’” he said.
Frederiksen said he isn’t convinced about the prospect of putting light rail down the middle of the highway, but does know that Hazel Dell is the last direction development, especially of office buildings, will start to move.
“By the county working with stakeholders to create a vision, it reassures investors and business owners that people are thinking and working to improve the corridor,” he said. “If nobody is talking about it, they don’t think an investment is being made.”
And the private side will only make investments if they can see that other private people will make investments to improve Highway 99, Frederiksen said.
“I’m convinced that area is going to continue to improve,” he said. “That’s why I was willing to make that commitment.”
Regarding the vision as a whole, business and property owner Rick Haddock said he is concerned about placing heavy restrictions along Highway 99, essentially creating a disincentive for new development.
Haddock co-owns FBR Realty Inc. and owns the building FBR is located in now at 6100 N.E. Highway 99. He has attended Team 99 meetings since the group was founded in 2000.
Haddock called the effort noble and said the vision has aspects that are both feasible and not.
“It’s important for us to improve the viability of doing business in Hazel Dell and along Highway 99,” he said. “Regionally, it’s important. But the concern I have is many times, when government comes in and starts dictating how it’s going to look, it’s more restrictive and easier for business to locate somewhere else.”
Like Frederiksen, Haddock expressed concern about the emphasis on mass transit in the corridor.
“I’m not sure we have the right land configuration to have that work and it’s very expensive to build,” he said. “Access is always an issue – you always want to have easy access and yet you still want to be safe. What I’m seeing is we’re going to end up with more restrictive access and that always affects business.”
Haddock also hopes to see more economic incentives for redevelopment. Impact fee credits and land assembly are listed as possible incentives and tools for minimizing developer risk in the plan.
“By the county encouraging design standards and providing examples of projects, it helps people think at a higher level,” Frederiksen said.
“But there is only one thing that really matters at the end of the day, and that’s market demand. If tenants or owner occupants don’t want to be there, nothing’s ever going to happen. That’s the challenge as the area continues to awaken.”
SUBAREA BREAKDOWN
The proposed four-square-mile Highway 99 subarea includes a mix of vacant land and aging and new buildings. Vacant land provides the best opportunity for development, but there also is a fair amount of land where the building value is less than the land value – creating a likelihood that it will be redeveloped, said Clark County planners. Here is a breakdown:
77 acres: Vacant land
118 acres: Land value is 1.5 times more than the building value
60 acres: Land value is 1 times to 1.5 times more than the building value
113 acres: Land value is 0.5 times to 1 times more than the building value
102 acres: Land value is 0 to 0.5 times more than the building value
Megan Patrick-Vaughn can be reached at mpatrick@vbjusa.com.
Editor’s note: The VBJ will more closely examine form-based zoning, which is proposed for the Highway 99 subarea, in the next Real Estate and Development Focus Section, publishing on Nov. 28.
