Guest Editorial: Island Leaders on What Planning Hayden Island Future Means to Them

Rick Gill, Brad Howton, Steve Welch and Walter Valenta are residents and business owners on Hayden Island.

What do you think of when you hear Hayden Island? Jantzen Beach Super Center? Home of Hooters? Tax-Free Haven for Vancouver residents?

For the nearly 5,000 people, we call this island home--home to our families, our businesses and our community. For us, Hayden Island offers a community that is unique in Portland. It also means we face some distinct challenges as an island community: one (very congested) way on and off the island; underdeveloped riverfront property; the lack of a town center; safe pedestrian and bicycle travel; transit options; and preservation of affordable housing.

But we see beyond these barriers. We see the potential for this island as much more:

I-5’s Scenic Gateway to Oregon from the North and Washington from the South (I-205 is the By Pass)
Portland/Vancouver’s Cruise Ship Port-of-Call with tourist friendly mass transit to downtown Portland and Vancouver.
Portland’s North Waterfront District to complement the South Waterfront District
A town village with a coherent development plan with higher density (total of more than 3,000 residential units) that maintains the diverse demographic of residents and types of housing; enough small retail, commercial, service, and light industrial businesses so residents do not need to leave the island; and open space parks with public access to the Columbia River and an inter-island paved bike/pedestrian trail system connected to Portland and Vancouver

Thanks to the strong will of many passionate residents and business owners, and the leadership and vision shown by the City Council, we have the tremendous opportunity to plan for a vision of this island that is attainable and sustainable.

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Posted Fri, 12/08/2006 - 11:18am.

Thanks

Submitted by Vince on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 1:37pm.

I know that this issue was not on your agenda last year -- nobody knew Wal-Mart would threaten the Island with unimaginable gridlock -- but you and Warren were their when we needed you. Just don't forget about us know that we are in the hands of planning bureru. I saw what they did to Linnton. Vince

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All this talk about planning

Submitted by Roger on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 3:18pm.

All this talk about planning for the future of Hayden Island needs to include adequate parking and the observance of private property owners rights.

Several of the streets and paths are privately owned and maintained by the residents or homeowners associations. Encouraging the public to have access to the private pathways creates liability issues and degrades the property values.

Some new condominum projects were built without regard to adequate parking spaces for guests. When the projects are fully occupied, parking will overflow into surrounding areas that are already congested.

Portland has essentially forgotten about Hayden Island after it was annexed into the city. The pot holes in the streets are some of the biggest I have ever seen. The streets flood after every heavy rain. I think Portland should take care of what we've got now before we start on grandiose plans for the future.

Sam Adams, where are you when we need you?

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