Economic Development

Economic development in the Bayside area seeks to renovate an area "characterized by disinvestment and urban blight into the new urban gateway for the Portland Peninsula" (Mavodones, 2000).  By creating this transformation, Portland hopes to strengthen the local economy, create jobs, provide relief for the shortage in the current housing stock, and help alleviate the tax burden placed upon all of Portland's residents.  A New Vision for Bayside documents the City of Portland's Planning Department's intentions for the Bayside area as this area continues develop.   Part one and part two of this document detail the planning strategy and implementation plans for Bayside's future development.  It calls for the involvement of all stakeholders; listing the Bayside Neighborhood Association (BNA), several departments of the City Government, social services providers who are located in Bayside, and other Bayside business interest.

    A New Vision for Bayside is considered part of the Comprehensive Plan for Portland and it details how and what types of future redevelopment may occur in the Bayside area.  This plan is guided by eleven principles.

  1. Develop Bayside as the "Urban Gateway" to Portland to help present the character of the city visually and attract people to downtown Portland 

  2. Generate a broad range of employment opportunities in Bayside which will improve the community and add to the available tax base for the area

  3. Ensure that Bayside continues to be a "walkable district" of the city and create improvements to better facilitate this

  4. Plan for mixed housing stock in Bayside through infill development to accommodate a diverse range of residents and seek to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood through design, scale, density, and variety

  5. To design Bayside transit opportunities to include various modes of transportation so the community is not limited to automobile use only

  6. Create multi-level parking structures

  7. Strengthen and ensure the success of the area's community centers

  8. Design and create open and green space within Bayside -"acquiring the railroad property in Bayside to guarantee a greenbelt" (Economic Development Center 2000, 10)

  9. For the community to continue to fulfill its role as the city's hub for social services and to enhance the area's service clusters which help in facilitating these services

  10. Establish development upon the area's Brownfields as encouraged by the USEPA Brownfields Program

  11. Removal of the area's scrapyards and to redevelop these lots into "more compatible and productive uses"

                                                            ( Bayside Task Force 2000a, 8)

These steps are meant to create a "vibrant, dense, mixed-use district that will dramatically improve the quality of life for the Bayside residents" (Bayside Task Force 2000b, 32).  Lee Urban, Director of The Economic Development Center, states "that there are four legs needed to ensure the success of economic development".  These are government, business, education, and neighborhood.  While Portland is struggling to find businesses willing to invest in Bayside it is doing well at maintaining the other three.  Government is anxious to see development in Bayside and is open to who may locate there.  The city is doing an adequate job of keeping the stakeholders apprised of new development opportunities and the BNA is extremely active with a strong presence at most city department and agency meetings.  

Both the Libra Foundation's arena proposal and the Idexx facility intended for Bayside failed.  As the city's process for review of development in Bayside considered these projects and all the varying opinions of the different stakeholders were voiced; decisions were made to not pursue either project.  Portland is being patient as it seeks to find businesses that will enhance the Bayside area and not detract from it.  The measures taken in a third proposal to sell city land on Marginal way have provisions set to ensure positive development.  It seeks to locate an office building on this parcel and mandates no fast-food chains or retail stores may be established if the land is sold (Shanahan 2000, 1A).

The City of Portland has approximately 8 million dollars of federal grant money to help eliminate slum and blight, as well as create jobs.  This coupled with funding available for "Brownfields" redevelopment makes Bayside an attractive site to locate in.  It is inevitable that development will continue in this area.  The City of Portland and BNA must continue to be vigilant thus ensuring that this is a positive experience for the community.  

    

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