RIDGEFIELD — With Felida Village, developer Ron Edwards was looking to bring some of the town square feel of Europe to Clark County. Now he’s looking to bring some Felida to Ridgefield.
Edwards is one of a few developers the city brought together for an upcoming project that will transform about 40 acres at the southwest corner of the roundabout at Pioneer Street and 45th Avenue into a mixed-use development with roughly 300 apartments, a new park and a commercial aspect.
“There are going to be concerns,” City Manager Steve Stuart said. “It is new. It’s unique in Ridgefield. There won’t be many others like it. There are very few places in Ridgefield where this type of density is allowed.”
City councilors approved the development agreement at their Feb. 8 meeting, about two years after the city started working on bringing mixed use to that spot. Originally, about 20 acres were purchased for apartments, Stuart said. But city officials were concerned that plopping down an apartment complex into an area without any nearby amenities wouldn’t draw people. So the city started looking around to bring other services to the property.
The city’s first idea was to try to bring in that elusive supermarket that residents in Ridgefield have long desired. But officials and the developers couldn’t make it work with a grocer at that time. Stuart said the city is “working on the final details” of being able to announce a grocery store coming to the city. He said it would be located on Port of Ridgefield property across South 45th Avenue from the upcoming 40-acre mixed-use project.
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