Port of Vancouver seeks public input on its future

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Port of Vancouver is updating its strategic plan, the document that will define the port’s focus and actions throughout upcoming years; and on Thursday, the public will have the opportunity to learn more about it, sound off on the port’s ideas and talk with port leaders about the project.

The first community open house on the plan will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Fort Vancouver Red Cross Building, 605 Barnes St., Vancouver.

“It’s an informal open house,” said Port of Vancouver spokeswoman Abbi Russell. “People can show up any time between 4:30 to 6:30. If they show up at 6:30 we won’t kick them out.”

A lot has changed in the last 10 years at the port. The West Vancouver Freight Access Loop is mostly constructed; Terminal 1 is being re-created; a new CEO is running a larger staff; a different board of commissioners is in charge; several major projects have come and gone: the Vancouver Energy oil terminal was dropped; a new hotel is proposed at Terminal 1 and the West Vancouver Freight Access is nearly finished and looking for new tenants — to name a few.

As the port has evolved, it’s looking for a new guiding document to chart its future. The new strategic plan the port is working on will give board staff vision for future goals, strategies to achieve them, and metrics to measure the progress. It will also create guidelines for yearly budget development.

At the open house, the port will have a display of its seven different goal areas: community, economic development, environment, financial, marine, organizational, and real estate. There will also be drafts of the language around those topics that the port has developed so far through work between port staff, commissioners and stakeholders. Members of the public will have the opportunity to provide input either verbally or in written form.

“It’s open to whatever feedback they want to provide,” Russell said. “We’ll have staff and consultants there to talk with them — as well as comment sheets so people can just write their comments, if they prefer.”

The project has been underway for nearly a year.

In summer 2017, the port hired consulting firm Maul Foster Alongi to help it craft the updated plan. The port claims to have gathered information from more than 80 organizations with a role to play in the region’s economy and environmental health.

The plan will next be discussed during the fifth port commission workshop on the subject. That meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. May 23 at the Port of Vancouver, 3103 N.W. Lower River Road, Vancouver.