Downtown Vancouver received more favorable attention last week, when The Seattle Times’ travel section declared “With new options for food, wine and walks on the Columbia, the Vancouver waterfront is buzzing.” The city’s reimagining of the Tower Mall area is underway, and two old quarries on the city’s east side are in various stages of redevelopment. With a new connection to downtown, Ridgefield is poised to redevelop its formerly industrial waterfront. Camas is working actively on developing the north shore of Lacamas Lake, and has the current Georgia-Pacific mill site on its to-do list. Washougal’s redeveloping its waterfront.
Next, it’s time to do something about the Highway 99 strip through Hazel Dell.
The strip, from Northeast 63rd Avenue to Northeast 134th Street, has long been an eyesore, a hodgepodge, a relic of 20th century car culture. Two types of buildings dominate Highway 99: Unappealing, and in many cases, dilapidated shacks perched close to the street, and big-box stores surrounded by moats of parking. There are more than 20 strip malls. Even if you want to visit businesses across the street, odds are you’ll drive and re-park.
The strip has its utility, at least for those who can drive. There are many retail businesses, large and small, including four large grocers. You can buy a car, get it fixed or buy parts and fix it yourself. Every fast food is available. And the area acts as a spine to pockets of affordable housing, ranging from residential motels to run-down trailer parks to (relatively) inexpensive apartments.
But it could be so much more. Suppose the strip was somehow safer and appealing for pedestrians and cyclists? What if a pedestrian/cyclist overpass near Northeast 88th Street connected the Hazel Dell strip to the C-Tran transit center? Only a few hundred yards apart, it’s a 10-minute drive from one to the other.
