Folks are very concerned about the heavy industrial overlay, the gravel pit in a pristine area, up to 500 train cars of gravel rumbling through 33 miles of Clark County and the attitude of the owner of the Portland Vancouver Junction Railroad, Eric Temple.
The county owns the rails. Homes, schools, senior centers, skate parks, Little League ballparks, libraries, multiuse residential developments have all been built very close to the tracks during the last decades. Heavy industries and gravel trains in these residential settings? The whole thing reminds me of the scene in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where George is shown what would happen if the movie’s sweet town had become Pottersville.
The county would be better served with a rails to trails. A beautiful green necklace-type park. Folks walking and biking the trail and stopping for eats and drinks and shopping, home values increasing rather than decreasing, creating a better tax base. This was the plan before the Great Recession. The county already owns the rails, usually a big first step in getting a rails to trails off the ground.
My spouse and I manage a small senior mobile home park in Battle Ground that skirts the track.
