Portland’s City Council authorized staff Thursday night to plan for building 300 acres of marine terminals on 800-acre West Hayden Island. The hearing on the issue stuffed the council chambers, which had to be partially cleared to comply with the fire code.
The undeveloped land near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers is both a unique environmental gem and a prime spot to develop industrial terminals for exports, imports and jobs.
Planners are to develop a proposal by December 2011 for annexing the island and identifying 300 acres for deep-water terminal development. The council could still vote against the proposal then.