Portland planning and sustainability commissioners released detailed recommendations on how to allow marine trade terminals on west Hayden Island.
Portland planning and sustainability commissioners released detailed recommendations on how to allow marine trade terminals on west Hayden Island.
Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish raised a series of tough questions, suggesting the Port of Portland faces a close City Council vote on its request to have the city annex about 800 acres of its property into the city and rezone it for industrial development.
But perhaps a bigger issue — the elephant in the room — was a letter issued three days earlier by Port Executive Director Bill Wyatt, saying the whole deal worked out by the Planning and Sustainability Commission after 11 work sessions was unworkable financially. Wyatt’s letter to Hales and the rest of the councilors proposed an “alternative” deal that would cut the port’s costs by $40 million. That would essentially eliminate much of the Planning and Sustainability Commission’s proposals for restoring the floodplain, forests and meadows caused by the port development, and setting aside a large sum to alleviate health concerns of mobile home residents who live next to the site.
Read more at The Portland Tribune.
