City Council Workshops

0:00 [MUSIC] >> Yeah, don't negotiate, yeah. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> [LAUGH] [BLANK_AUDIO] >> [LAUGH] >> And it didn't count? Darn. [COUGH] [BLANK_AUDIO]

0:59 >> Good afternoon. Welcome to Vancouver City Council. Today is Monday, May 18th, 2026. And this afternoon, we have a couple of different workshops. But let's go ahead and start off with PDX Airport Master Plan update. Wow, Chad, how exciting. >> Good afternoon, Mayor. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, Councillors. I have a couple of guests with me today from the Port of Portland. To my immediate right is Sean Loughran, Planning and Development Director for the Port of Portland. To Sean's right is Aaron Ray, Senior Manager, Aviation Long Range Planning for the Port of Portland. It may not fit on a business card. >> [LAUGH] >> But it's been a few years since we came to you with an update from

1:55 the Port of Portland, and if you haven't been to the airport recently, you may have noticed a few changes. And now that they are developing their plan for the next 20 years, we thought it would be a good time to bring them to you, give an update, give you an opportunity to provide any feedback you have. >> Good, thank you. >> I'm gonna give a little bit of background. And then Sean will talk about some of the recent airport improvements. And then Aaron will walk you through the key elements of the 2045 plan for the airport. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the airport. As we all know, it's extremely convenient to Clark County and Vancouver. When we're out there talking to businesses about locating to Vancouver, it's one of the top things that they're interested in, is convenient access to the airport. We have better access than most of the region.

2:52 So it's a great amenity for the city of Vancouver. The regional economy receives about 963 million in direct and indirect spending. The Vancouver restaurants have enjoyed success in the airport terminal. Out of about 9,600 total employees, 860 live in Vancouver and Clark County. So it's a huge employer for the city of Vancouver and Clark County. And also the recent improvements to the terminal are a source of pride for Southwest Washington residents, too. A couple of other stats that may be of interest. The labor income is about 70 million for Vancouver loan. That's payroll. For Clark County, it's 111 million.

3:44 The value added is 114 million and 217 million in the county. And then the total output is 179 million or 476 million for the county. The tax impacts of PDX operations about 9 million. So significant economic generator just for this side of the river.

4:13 >> I think I'll stop there and I want to talk about the community advisory committee. This is the formal channel through which the city of Vancouver interacts with the Portland Airport. It was created in 2011 as an outgrowth of the PDX Airport Futures Plan in which Vancouver participated. The three sponsors are the Port of Portland, City of Portland, and the City of Vancouver. I sit on that committee. The CAC has 30 members who represent nearby neighborhoods, county governments, wildlife interests. TSA, airlines, the noise advisory committee, and the air guard. There's probably a few that I'm missing there, but it's a broad representation of associations and groups that are impacted by airport operations. The mission is to support meaningful and collaborative public dialogue and

5:10 engagement on airport related planning and development and to provide an opportunity for the community to inform the decision making related to the airport. So it's a really good forum for issues to be brought up to the airport's attention. They bring their experts in and provide presentations and really inform folks so they can go back to their groups and pass along that information. >> I think I will turn now to Sean for a little overview of what's happening at the airport now. >> Move the mic and you let me know if it's a problem. >> It's okay. >> Great. I would say hello, mayor and council. Thanks so much for having us tonight. Chad didn't mention I used to work for the City of Vancouver and I actually left

6:04 the city in 2008 to lead the effort to do the master plan for the airport, Airport Futures. And at that time when we did it, we were at a meeting of Portland City Council. And it looked like it was mostly going to be the City of Portland leading that effort. And Vancouver showed up at City Council and said it was our airport too. And it is not just the City of Portland's airport. It is a regional facility with a significant catchment area and we think of it. At that time when we set up the planning advisory committee, Aaron will talk about the one for the current master plan, it was co-chaired. We had a chair from the state of Oregon. Somebody had been on the Department of Land Conservation and Development for a number of years. But we appointed a chair also from Vancouver, Dave Smith. He was a long time employee of Delta Airlines and did a terrific job of representing the city.

7:03 We identified three other individuals to go through that whole master plan process. We went to the community advisory committee and as Aaron will describe, we're making a commitment long term to continue to engage the community with representation from the City of Vancouver in that process as well. That serves not only on that, but we have our coordinating committee which helps us set the agenda and figure out what we're going to do when we meet every month and gives us feedback on the structure committee and everything else. We are super grateful that we have had the best of staff from the city to help us over the years. So it's really been terrific. I'm going to see if I can advance the slide. Just this arrow right here. >> There we go. >> There it goes, okay. Hopefully I didn't do two. I'm just curious, have most of you been at the new terminal, seeing the big roof?

8:02 It's an amazing facility. I think people forget that when we talk about the terminal core, the central terminal, it really is part of what we call PDX Next. And that's an investment program at the airport that is an outgrowth of that master plan that we finished in 2011. It's set us on a course for over a decade of development. The last big project really is the central terminal. It is the biggest, over $2 billion. That roof that you see in the slide is about nine acres. What I would say is that that nine acre roof sits on top of 34 Y columns. They're one of the big features when you go in there. And those Y columns were made by Thompson Fabricators right here in Vancouver. They are 55 feet tall, they're 20 feet wide. Each of those bears a load of over 260 tons.

9:02 So if you're in the building, you gotta take a look. I'll talk a little bit about resilience, but they are also, that steel structure is the key to the seismic resilience of the building as well. But when you look at all the small businesses, I think we've had over 150 small businesses involved in the project. And as Chad described, the amount of local craft workers that have been involved. It has been truly a regional effort. The timber that was sourced is all sourced from Pacific Northwest forests in Oregon and in Washington. So really a substantial thing. Our goals going into it were we wanted to build resilience in it. So that has been a key feature of the building. We wanted to make sure we had capacity for growth all the way out to 2035 and beyond.

9:56 We wanted to make sure that it continued to be a facility that was one of the best performing airports in the country and in the world. And that it was focused on customer service. And so I think if you've been over there, all of those things seem to continue to be key features. Where we're at today, I actually arrived in on a flight on Friday. And these new features are being updated as we speak. I was able to exit the terminal. We have been exiting from the center portion of the terminal. We recently moved the exits to where we had always planned them at the north and south end. As of the end of last week, we also introduced new vertical circulation at the north and south end. So you can come in and go directly down to bag claim without having to traverse the ticket lobby. So again, it makes the passenger flow so much better.

10:53 And one of the things we've heard most about is it shortens walking distances in the terminal. Makes it more direct, makes the way finding far more intuitive. So we're nearing the end of this kind of incredible period of construction and development. We hope to be positioned to really meet the long term with this facility. I hope everybody gets a chance to enjoy it. One of the unique things about PDX is it's not just about passengers arriving and departing the airport. But it's the kind of space that we lead the nation in what we call meters and graders. People that come to the airport because they want to drop somebody off. People that go to the airport because they want to pick somebody up. And because of that, we have this large pre-security concessions program that most airports don't have. We really look at it and we consider it the community's living room. We try and make it a space that people don't dread going to.

11:52 But that there's a sense of anticipation for arrival and departure. We consider it really a gateway of the Pacific Northwest. And that's hopefully what we represent in the design and operation of the facility itself. This is just a picture, these get updated so quickly. This was closed the other day, but if you came into the terminal, the new vertical circulation. This daylights the ticket lobby which is, excuse me, the bag claim area which is one of those challenging spaces. And has a beautiful footprint on the bottom, so you have actually a kind of nice space which has been so constrained. Not quite open yet, but the light rail platform is also new and will open end of June, July time frame. So that's coming up here pretty soon. Just a few words about resilience, when we talk about resilience in the port, we have a resilience program. So we look at a range of different issues.

12:48 Foremost to us is seismic resilience and preparing for that Cascadia subduction zone event. What would we need to do to make sure we're prepared to serve that role as a key facility for this region as it responds to and recovers from such events. So that's key to us. We're also looking at climate. We have been impacted by fire, smoke at the airport, all those different things, temperatures that affect operations. When we even look at things like infectious disease, when we had COVID, how do we look at those things and sustain operation of the airport? As you can see in this slide, there's substantial investment made in that PDX next program. The terminal expansion, that 150 foot expansion to the west is a seismically resilient facility. Those Y columns are a key part. It's actually curtain walls instead of standard window walls so that that space moves together in the event that we have a 9.0 or greater earthquake. We'll sustain that and quickly get back in the operation.

13:48 The other key feature I will, the building outlined in red on that. RCC is the Rental Car Customer Service Center, but EOC is the Emergency Operation Center. That actually is a base isolated facility. So even at a sustained 9.0 event, that will be ready for operation within minutes. It shouldn't have any interruption in operation. And that will coordinate emergency response for much of the region in the event that that happens. So, incrementally over time, we have a program that's looking at what these key investments are. South runway is up there. We say we're not an airport unless we have a runway. To be able to get key personnel into the airport, to be able to do evacuations after. We know the runway's incredibly important to us.

14:41 We've completed 100% design and we're currently working on the funding strategy again to provide that key resource to the region. And Aaron, I think I'm turning it over to you. >> Great, thank you Sean and Chad. Good evening Mayor and Councillors, thanks for having us. And I'll apologize in advance, I'm going to make sure we're leaving a lot of time for questions. And so if this seems like I'm an auctioneer, I apologize. Please stop me or ask for clarification. But what I'm going to be talking about is now our look forward towards 2045. So we've just completed or on the verge of completing our capital campaign to get us there. And now we need to think about where we're going next. And so we're updating our airport master plan. This slide just shows how the port uses an airport master plan. Everybody thinks that it's oftentimes a blueprint for everything that will happen at the airport over the next 20 years.

15:40 But what it is really is a strategic framework. It's our documentation of our decision making about how our facilities relate to one another. What sort of forecast demand will they need to accommodate between now and the end of the planning period. And what went into the decision making for the strategy of how we will address those needs going forward. In the beginning of the project, we talked with a number of stakeholders, including our community advisory committee that Chad sits on, to come up with the key areas that we needed to address in the plan. And they really are things like making sure we're getting everything that we can out of the investments that we've been making. Continuing to invest in our resiliency program so the airport remains an asset when the community most needs it. And then doubling down on our investments in the passenger experience including, yes,

16:35 the international arrivals experience, which is consistently the most, I would say that is the most frequent topic of comment that we're getting from the community, that and walking distances. So these eight areas really form the basis of our work as we went through the plan process over the last couple of years. The plan's been guided this entire time with a very intensive focus on stakeholder engagement. So Shawn mentioned we have a planning advisory committee, it's pictured there in the upper right. 25 community members with a diverse set of knowledge, skills, and experience. Three of those members are from Vancouver and Clark County, and I will say that this group has knocked it out of the park from my perspective in terms of giving us the community input that we need to form a strategy that we think reflects the community's values. We're very, very fortunate that we have that group.

17:33 We also have an interagency advisory committee, which are all of our partner jurisdictions, including the city of Vancouver, that has been working with us to understand the strategy and will continue to work with them as we develop our implementation approach. And then a number of port employee groups that helped us guide the project from a governance perspective, but also helped us understand more what the airport could be doing to meet our shared prosperity mission for equitable economic development across the region. And to our knowledge, this is the first time that an airport master plan in the country has taken that sort of focused approach on that shared prosperity mission. We've also obviously been out into the public. You'll see a picture there in the middle of the screen. We had a lot of fun at the Vancouver Farmers Market a few weeks ago, dodging rain showers and talking to folks about the airport.

18:27 But we did three rounds of community open houses throughout the project, including in-person, online, virtual opportunities to engage. Our latest count is we've engaged about 500 people across the region in that effort, and again, we've really validated the strategy that we're we're putting in place to accommodate demand between now and 2045. So what I'm going to present to you tonight is what we call the recommended development strategy. Again, this is it's going to look like a fully baked plan that is almost ready for a blueprint. And I want to encourage you that it's not that this is the collection of investments that we'll need to make between now and 2045 to meet our forecast demands. It's really a land use exercise. The next step from this is to pull the thread a little bit more so we understand what comes first, second and third. What might the funding strategies be? What are the opportunities to make these projects the most beneficial that they can be for the region?

19:25 So we have a lot of work ahead of us. I will tell you that the Port Commission adopted this strategy at their meeting last week. So we're starting that work now. And I'd love to have conversations with you either now or later about how we can make sure that we're that that we continue to make the implementation of the strategy as lucrative for Vancouver as as the new main terminal has been. So this is what we affectionately call our shopping list. This is the distilled version of everything that we more or less everything that we need at the airport to accommodate forecast demand. The forecast that we have shows about 34 million annual passengers between now and 2045. For frame of reference, we're at about 20 today, which is right about where we were pre-COVID. So we've we've almost climbed completely out of that of that dip.

20:16 And we're back on a growth path that's going to translate to between six and 10 additional aircraft gates and about double the space that we need for our international arrivals facility. Again, especially so we can eliminate that bus transfer and make that that experience as great as the rest of the passenger experience that we have today for parking. We're going to need somewhere between 25 and 50 percent more parking than we have today. And we will need to take have additional capacity in our curbsides and our pick up and drop off areas. That's one area that we don't have a lot of options for because we can't make the facility any wider. The concourses that are where they are because the runways are where they are and we're not going to move either one of those things. So we need to get creative. And then we need additional land for cargo, general aviation and all of the things that that happen around the airport behind the scenes to keep the airport safe and efficient.

21:09 So things like our public safety facilities, airport maintenance, places for companies to maintain aircraft, flight kitchen, things like that. So we've we've considered all of those things in this strategy, which is shown here. One thing and again, for the sake of time, I'm not going to go through every one of these investments, but one thing you will notice if you are an astute observer of PDX is that we are missing a runway here. So the crosswind runway, which is which is listed there as number one, is currently used almost none of the time. It provides no meaningful capacity for for PDX. It won't qualify for future federal funding for rehabilitation or maintenance. And so there's no business case, frankly, to keep it. And it's in the way. So we if we can eliminate that, we will move the terminal or we'll be able to expand the terminal farther to the west as located in numbers five and six there.

22:07 The other piece you'll see is number four, which is an international arrivals facility just to the north of the existing of the new main terminal where we'll do an expansion there. And then additional parking numbers seven and nine that we'll need between now and 2045 in both a structure closer in, which would probably come on towards the end of the planning period and then some additional economy parking. What we're proud to do here is have all of that additional parking capacity on already disturbed or existing impervious. So we're not creating new impervious surfaces for our parking now or into the future. We're really that was a key piece of feedback we got from our planning advisory committee that we were able to accomplish. And with the airfield improvements that we have, the two main runways will provide us the capacity we need through 2045 and beyond.

23:00 In fact, we'll just be getting to the number of takeoffs and landings in 2045 that we observed back in 1997. So we'll we're in a great position there for a from a runway capacity and airfield capacity perspective. And with that, I believe I just want to offer my thanks and I'm happy to answer any questions. I will tell you that's the fifty fifth time I've given that presentation and you're the last ones that I have scheduled right now. So I hope that I did a good job tonight. Appreciate it. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Sean. Counselors, you have some questions. Counselor Fox, go ahead. Hi. Thanks for visiting us today. When I was looking through this presentation, one of the things that stood out for me was the.

23:52 Well, you raised it again was kind of this, I guess, congestion around drop off pickup pickups. And I was also reflecting as a person that lives in Vancouver. It's pretty easy drive to get to the airport. However, there aren't really many alternatives when it comes to getting onto a bus. And so I would imagine if you were asking and perhaps you have why there's so many drop offs and pickups is that that's probably some of the drivers there is that to get on a bus. A 10 minute drive would then be in one hour transit ride, perhaps in multiple transfers to get to the airport. So has there been some discussions about providing more of a easier link for residents of Vancouver to get over to the airport without driving?

24:46 Absolutely. And I'll answer that in the current and in the future perspective. So we're really happy that we have the service that we do to the airport from Fisher's Landing. We know that it's not as as comprehensive as we need it to be in the future. So we stay in close touch with C Tran both today and they're part of that interagency committee to understand how we can we can improve that going forward. We are also looking at even today, are we able to provide C Tran with the curbside that they need to, you know, to make their job easier, you know, have the opportunity to expand service if they're not in congestion. So we it's a tough nut to crack sometimes, but we are working with them and it's not just for travelers. It's also to support our PDX employees. And in fact, that's probably the better opportunity if we want to talk about diverting trips onto transit.

25:41 The opportunities with our employees. I'll say one other thing about access to and from airport or to and from the terminal complex. Our next big project that is slated for for initiation here in 2028 is to improve the intersection at 82nd and Airport Way specifically to to get everything out of the way. So you have a straight shot between the terminal and two or five. So only turning movements would need to use the intersection. Otherwise, you literally fly up and over the intersection on the way out of the airport. So we think for C Tran that'll help. I think it'll help Vancouver and Clark County residents as well. It's interesting. I was on a trip recently and I I had someone drop me off, but I was coming back about midnight. So I wasn't going to ask any of my friends to pick me up. And and the Uber congestion was pretty interesting. That trip at that time, they had the surge pricing and the cost for me to return home was about 90 dollars.

26:41 So I just thought, you know, those are things that travelers are facing. If again, if you decide not to drive your car and you're thinking, OK, I can just take an Uber because there isn't a bus that's running that time of night either. So I'm looking forward to hearing some more solutions there. Great. Thanks for the question. Thank you. Counselor Paulson. Thanks for being here this afternoon. Council member Eric Paulson. Congratulations and thank you. PDX is the best airport in the world, bar none. And I haven't been to all of them, but I've been to a lot of them. So thank you. And, you know, in your review of the prior plan and in your preliminary discussion of the upcoming plan, you know, one of the core things that shows up as a customer and is at the center of the work that you're continuing to do is putting the customer first.

27:36 And I don't think a lot of other airports do that. And it makes a big difference from the moment you step into the airport. And, you know, Saturday I came in late at night at Gate C 22. And it is not a long walk. I can guarantee you it is not a long walk because having walked through LAX, that's a long walk. So I wanted to do a plus one on council member. Mayor Pro Tem Fox's comments around because thinking about increased usage in terms of flights and then proportionately increasing parking. My hope would be that we would continue to look at alternative transportation options so that 25 to 50 percent parking capacity increase is to accommodate a much larger increase in passenger traffic. So that it's not one to one. Right. And I think a transit opportunity from Southwest Washington is something that we hear a lot about.

28:33 Three of us here are four of us here now are on the board of C train. And we hear a lot about that in that capacity as well, especially from folks who live on this side of town. And Fisher's Landing isn't close or convenient. And so having better connectivity to downtown Vancouver would be helpful. On a couple of occasions, I've ridden my bike to PDX, believe it or not, and that is not really a good experience either. I mean, 205 is pretty good. But then after 205 and navigating from there up to the terminal is suboptimal. So opportunities like that continuing to accommodate alternative transportation options. I would encourage you to again, put the customer in the middle there and customers are using alternative transportation methods. And then as Mayor Pro Tem mentioned, do whatever you can to get rid of that surge pricing for Uber.

29:28 Because that's a calculation I do every time this last trip we parked in economy, because I knew that two Uber rides were going to be more expensive than just parking in economy. And it's a short Uber ride, so it shouldn't be. One other thing that that wasn't mentioned, but I happen to know and I think is worth underscoring just for those of us who are talking about the airport right now, is a lot of the work that was done in that main terminal is visible and beautiful. But a lot of it we don't see, but made a huge improvement in terms of baggage capacity in particular. And all of the things that are beneath the airport that we don't see or but we rely on to get our bags to us efficiently. Those are a big part of that two billion dollar investment that took place and make a difference as well for the customers. So overall, just congratulations and thank you. Keep putting the customer front and center. And I'm proud to call PDX home. Thank you. Councilor Hanson. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Bart Hanson.

30:26 And thank you again, because having you eight miles away is a huge amenity. It's huge amenity when you're putting together conferences. Are you going to have it in SeaTac or you're going to have it in Vancouver? Really, that's what it comes down to, because if you have that kind of access and you're eight miles away, it makes a difference to our tourism. It makes a difference to our conferences and everything in that arena. But also one of the things and this is not just PDX, but it's if you go to other airports, you'll notice this as well. You'll get off the plane and PDX. We're lucky. We know where we're going. We know what the score is. But if you go to another airport, this is what you experience. You need ground transportation. So the signage and the signage will say ground transportation and you'll continue walking in that direction. And then it will say taxis. So you'll keep walking in that direction and then you'll keep going and it'll say Ubers and whatever ground transport that you can get.

31:22 And then at the very end, after you've walked that entire distance, it will mention high capacity transit. And it's almost like if you're new to the area, you might not know that they have that availability of using the high capacity transit because the signage is not going to give it away at the very beginning. And when you get off a plane, you're thinking to yourself, what's the easiest way for me to get to where I need to go? In all actuality, if you get out in D.C., their high capacity transit is the easiest way to do it because it's going to take you pretty much directly to your hotel. So I think signage is a big deal. If we want people to become more familiar. And I'm a dork when it comes to this kind of stuff because I'm one of the four that sits on C-TRAN board. So I look for this kind of stuff when I get off, you know, and land somewhere. So that would be the only thing that I would say really make sure that folks that are coming to the area are aware of our high capacity transit that feeds right into it. You're speaking to two very like minded dorks. So you're in good company.

32:21 Can I just can I respond to that quickly? One thing that makes makes us a little bit different that we're very proud of is that in order to get to all of those other things, you need to walk past the turnoff for the high capacity transit. And we made it very clear in the signage and with the with the platform improvements, we have probably the easiest light rail connection of most any airport in the country. And we make sure people know that. So we agree with you that the more we can get people over there, the better. Councilor Harless. Kim Harless, council member. Yeah, just adding on. Thank you. Thank you for having the best airport when I'm frustrated at other parts. At least I know when I get home, it's going to be much, much less stressful. So that's always a joy as well as if you're running late knowing that, oh, I don't have time to make breakfast. Oh, I know there's good breakfast. It's not going to be like really crappy food.

33:14 And also the prices are reasonable and aren't over the top as and are similar to what you would normally pay. All the transit things. Yes, absolutely. And then something I wanted to bring up. But I also kind of know the answer. But the next workshop after this is about our climate action framework and for us and our plan to reach carbon neutrality and how a big chunk of that is out of our control. As you know, folks using, you know, flying throughout the world, we have no ability to really impact that section except for whatever you might be able to do to help us. And so I was looking through what your own plan was for sustainability. And I know a lot is out of your control as well. And one of the things I pulled out of there was that aircraft emissions are 52 times more emissions from what you're able to control at the airport, which is just substantial.

34:12 But I'm really grateful that regardless you're putting all of these sustainability measures in and even though it's just a tiny piece, every single little bit helps. And I also had the question if if you just kind of knew, like, is there any hope when it comes to those emissions? Because I know you're probably interested in that as well. And staying on top of everything is, of course, always difficult. So I love it when there's experts in the room to kind of like, hey, what's the latest on impacts of air travel? I would say absolutely more than we can cover today. But we have and it might have been what you were looking at. We have our climate action plan, our plan to get to near net zero by 2050. We break it into two categories. And maybe that's the way the city looks at it, too. What are the things we can directly influence? And then what are the things that we have control over?

35:02 So on the control side, in that PDX terminal, one of the things we did was build a ground source heating and cooling system that reduced the energy requirements for heating that space by half. Double the space, half the energy on the airline side. Again, we have an airline agreement. They operate. The biggest thing that we're focused on right now is making sustainable aviation fuels available at the airport. Key focus for us. It's been harder than you might think, but it will have a substantial effect on on emissions. And that will be one of our our key features. But we have a whole program and be happy to share it at any time. Awesome. And then one last thing that I just remembered that the new gender neutral restrooms are amazing. It's so much nicer for so many reasons, but also families being able to just stick together. And they're so clean. And I love that there's no like there's lots of natural light to go. So it's awesome. So that was my last thing.

36:01 Thank you. Councilor Stover. Thank you, Mayor and council member Ty Stover. Appreciate you both being here with us tonight. And thank you to Chad. So my colleagues have hit all the points I want to just add on the first carbon inventory that was done for the city. The largest portion was air traffic out of PDX. I think we corrected that and we pulled that out since that is so far out of our control. But to my colleagues point and all the colleagues here, because it's a similar theme, every little thing that you can possibly do. So I'll be the cranky old guy at the end and talk about the service that we still need out of the airport.

36:59 And I'm sure you know this as well. Frustrates me when carriers. The side they need to fly to Europe rather than taking us to Latin America where, you know, it's it pains me that we don't have a direct flight to Mexico City versus Sacramento does. And so those are the things I'm looking forward to. And I know that that beefing up our international capacity will play a key role in making that happen. So thank you for all you're doing. Top priority for sure. Kelsey Perez, did you have any comments? Just a minor comment on agreeing with what all my colleagues have mentioned, but wanted to really emphasize that coordination on.

37:55 A bike infrastructure or an alternative path to get there. I know that it just takes 1 accident. On the 205 to back everything up, and there's been times when I've been late to catch a flight because of accidents. And so that and then also. Just around recent policies regarding public safety, given the political environment with immigration and how that has impacted the communities there at the airport. Just curious on how you've been able to address some of that. I can't offer to too much on that. The Port of Portland, of course, we have our own police department.

38:50 We work with the federal agencies to manage that. We don't work for them. So in terms of those things, we really haven't had any substantive problems, whether it's with the TSA and be able to retain staff through times when they were not getting paid to be there. And keeping the checkpoints operational or other issues. So for the most part, we are fortunate enough to have been able to coordinate those things at PDX and keep the airport operating as well as as we have on international air service. I would say it is a priority for us. You might not realize, but the International Air Service Advisory Committee was actually jointly created between the city of Vancouver and the city of Portland. Back in, I think, 2007 and has been in existence ever since that time.

39:46 But it brings together all the local businesses that benefit directly from service and has been unbelievably good in terms of its utility and advocating with the airlines to bring service to PDX. So, yeah. Can I just add one thing about the bike access piece? PDX is one of the first airports and still, I believe, one of the only airports to have a comprehensive bicycle pedestrian master plan. Once our plates get a little bit clear from the work we have ahead of us, we will be updating that plan and so we'll look forward to engaging folks from Vancouver and Clark County. I know of at least one employee that commutes over the bridge every day only except if it's freezing rain, I believe is what he won't ride in, but everything else every day he's riding across the bridge to access the terminal. So we'll make sure we make that easier for everybody else.

40:37 >> Thank you. My comments have given you lots of good questions and comments, especially about that opportunity for C-TRAN to add to the development of that cross river traffic. I would like for you to make sure you thank all of the shuttle bus drivers who do an incredibly wonderful job at 3 o'clock in the morning and midnight getting people on and off and where they need to go and feel safe. But I love coming out of the area and seeing the waiting area where people can sit, not stand with their posters, welcome home, mom and dad, but they can actually sit in what looks like auditorium seating comfortably and be there for who knows how long.

41:33 >> We used to have the citizen noise advisory committee. How is that happening now? >> I'll be happy to answer that question. So the citizen noise advisory committee's work was folded into the community advisory committee that Chad sits on. We're in the process of following the master plan. We will be updating the CAC structure. The City of Vancouver will be a key partner at that table for some time to come and we hope Chad's with us for a while. >> Okay. All right. Because we did have a number of citizens who actively served on that and did a wonderful job and helped everyone understand when those planes come flying over Vancouver Lake or east Vancouver and helping identify that particular problem.

42:23 So thank you so much. Councillors, that's all we have time for right now. We're going to transition into the climate action framework. Sean, Erin, thank you so much, Chad. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, city council members, city manager and members of the public. I'm Rebecca small, climate action policy and policy analyst -- sorry, climate action lead and policy analyst and I'm joined here today by Lexi Freena who will be working with the city's climate team for two years as our Bloomberg Harvard fellow.

43:22 We're here today to present the second of four workshops planned for 2026 to keep council informed of the climate team's progress on the first update to the climate action framework. Today we would like to update you on three major areas of work that staff have been advancing over the past several months and discuss where those efforts are headed next. Aligning climate priorities with the city's budget process. Finding the CAF strategies and actions and planning for community engagement. This work has been guided by the direction council provided during our first workshop in February. As we prepare to move into the next phases of work, we wanted to check in with you to make sure that these approaches remain aligned with your direction and priorities. After the presentation, we'll return back to that question.

44:20 So for context, let's take a look at where we are in the process timeline. We're currently in the middle of our conversations with city departments to conduct revisions of the CAF strategies and actions. And we're starting to segue into conversations about how the direction from those updated actions can translate into specific prioritized components of climate work plans. We're wrapping up the planning stage for our community engagement thanks to support from the offices of engagement and access and communications. And we've started attending community events. Lexi was tabling at the Native American Youth and Family Center's Home Ownership Fair at the end of April. And our engagement period will largely run throughout the summer into early autumn. And finally, we have just completed the development and delivery of the climate budget guidance to city departments and the budget committee, which we'll talk about next.

45:18 So as we discussed in our February workshop, our early engagement with departments indicated a desire for greater alignment between the budget process and our climate priorities. For the first time, the climate program is actively engaged in the city's budget process and working with leadership to help raise awareness of investments that council has said they would like to see prioritized, both in this 2027 to 2028 biennium budget and guide the near-term climate priorities across departments. These are the key points of council's direction from that last workshop. So we heard a continued emphasis on prioritizing progress towards the city's municipal greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, so that we're getting our own house in order and leading by example.

46:04 We also heard that as many of those easier and lower-cost opportunities are completed, the remaining work will become more complex and more expensive, and we expect that the balance of future efforts to then shift more significantly towards resilience and adaptation. We also heard a desire for projects that community members can see and experience directly. The foundational planning and policy work that we've completed over the past 3 1/2 years has been essential to laying the groundwork for long-term success, but there's also a strong interest in moving from planning into visible implementation and ensuring that the benefits of climate action are felt and experienced throughout the community.

46:52 So how are we carrying that direction forward? Based on that council direction and further development with city management, the climate team identified four core priority areas for departments to focus on during the 2027-2028 biennium budget process, shown here, and working with the budget committee, shared that guidance with our city departments. I'll note as a specific example here, the rapid decarbonization of municipal operations. In practice, this means that electric vehicles are being treated as the default assumption in the upcoming budget where feasible, and capital projects, new capital projects, are expected to align with the city's new green building policies. These priority areas are intended to guide department planning within current service levels while still allowing room for innovation to occur. We also recognize that the city is facing a constrained budget.

47:48 While staff will continue pursuing outside opportunities wherever possible, we also recognize that grant funding alone will not be sufficient to meet the city's broader climate goals, and meaningful progress will require continued discussions about long-term funding strategies. The next major body of work in the CAF update is revising the strategies and actions outlined in the document. When the original CAF was adopted in 2022, the city was at the beginning of its climate action journey, so much of the direction in that original framework was focused on building the foundation for future work by developing plans, policies, and internal capacity.

48:32 These included actions such as developing an EV strategy, establishing green building policies, conducting a vulnerability assessment, conducting assessments of city infrastructure and communities, and incorporating climate-smart principles into the transportation system plan and comprehensive plan. So now, with much of that foundational work now completed or underway, we're in a position to refine the framework and place a greater emphasis on implementation of those plans and policies in the strategies. We've also heard from staff that in some areas that were strongly supported by the community, the city is not always the lead agency or the primary implementing partner, so as part of this update, we're considering how to better clarify the city's role and identify where collaboration and advocacy may be more appropriate than direct implementation.

49:24 And then finally, we're the first iteration of the CAF focused heavily on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Both staff and community members have expressed a desire to start that shift towards resilience and adaptation measures, as well as actions that preserve and protect the city's natural environment. The last topic will carry forward into the community engagement component of our process, which we will talk about next. So as we transition into summer, we get to shift our focus outside to community engagement. This slide shows the main goals of that process. It's an opportunity not only to report back to the community on progress that has been made, but it's also an opportunity to listen, to learn, and make sure we're all still moving in the right direction together. It gives residents a chance to share their current priorities, raise concerns about unintended harms or consequences, and help shape the next phase of climate action in the city.

50:23 Coming on the heels of the comprehensive plan update, we're also in a unique position to build on conversations that many community members have already invested heavily in, particularly around resilience and adaptation. Through that process, neighborhoods including Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain, and Mountain View helped articulate what would make their communities safer, healthier, and better prepared for the challenges ahead. As we expand these conversations citywide, we also hope to return to those same communities, reconnect with those residents, and work alongside them to help advance some of the solutions that they themselves identified. That opportunity for continued partnership and co-implementation is one of the most meaningful aspects of this next phase of engagement, and we are eager to get that underway.

51:17 So together with the engagement and access staff, we're organizing our efforts around three separate tracks designed to give us both breadth and also depth on two areas of particular concern. Our first track is general outreach. That's the breadth. This is our opportunity to tell the story of what we've been working on, to have those open houses and tabling events, to conduct surveys and report stories that we can share via social media channels to raise awareness and invite interested parties to get more involved in the process. And with that, I will hand it over to my colleague Lexi. Thanks, Rebecca. Good afternoon mayor and city councilors. Lexi Farina, Climate Fellow. So continuing on with building on the three tracks that we've identified for engagement. The next one is around healthy and safe climate smart homes. And this is a distinct focus because we recognize that our greenhouse gas inventory buildings are the second largest source of emissions community wide.

52:16 And as Rebecca mentioned, through the comprehensive plan engagement process, we heard continued concerns from residents about the ability for their homes to withstand extreme heat, smoke events and other climate impacts. So the goal of this track is really to understand and inform city actions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on our existing residential buildings, as well as thinking about how we can create homes that are safe, comfortable, and have healthy living environments as the climate impacts intensify. So within this track, we recognize that home means a lot to many different people. So we hope to engage in conversations with homeowners, renters, and others who have unique living conditions and needs to really understand resident

53:05 priorities, barriers, and needs to support programs that encourage things like electrification, energy efficiency, and climate vulnerability measures, things like air condition or filtration opportunities. We also hope that these conversations can help us understand the incentives or services offered that would encourage participation in future program activities that would address these areas. The third and final track for engagement opportunities is around Brazilian and connected communities. As Rebecca highlighted, that was a big area that came out of the comprehensive planning process and an area where we learned from our three priority communities

53:50 of Fruit Valley, Mountain View, and Fourth Plain, where they wanted to see action be taken in this area. So we're excited to use this opportunity to treat implementation as an ongoing and visible opportunity for more engagement and collaboration to actually put some of those actions into progress, rather than continuing to have the same conversations over and over again. We also hope that this track will be able to broaden some of that outreach to other neighborhoods and communities that are experiencing significant climate impacts to continue to identify broader local needs and concerns and build on those community resilient strategies. And just to give you an example of some of the events and activities that we have planned to carry out the goals of those three engagement pathways, we have some planned for broad engagement as well as focus conversations.

54:45 You can take a look at our Be Heard page that's already up on the website, and we have an online discussion forum that's live, just to provide some information to the community around what the climate action framework is, what the update process looks like, and ways that they can get involved and have their voices and ideas heard throughout the process. We'll also be tabling at community events throughout the summer. We'll be at events like Movies in the Park, the Juneteenth celebration, and the Sunday Sounds concert series. We're especially excited to partner with Council in the community forum on June 22nd to collaborate and engage residents in ideas around how we can shape a climate conscious feature for Vancouver. We'll be participating in Pacific Northwest Climate Week for the first time this July, and the team is working on putting together some exciting events for that week.

55:37 One of those that's already on the calendar that we're looking forward to is a bike ride to tour some of our favorite heritage trees, so we invite you to join us and we look forward to sharing more information on the other events that will be held on that week. Finally, just getting into some of our more focused conversations, we have some workshops planned with environmental justice focused organizations, potentially supported by the Washington Conservation Action, again to build on some of the conversations that were started as part of the comprehensive engagement update, and so we want to really take that opportunity to build on what's been heard and continue to engage the same group of people, so that we can put some actions into place. And lastly, we are planning some conversations with partner agencies, neighborhood groups, and the business community to ensure a diverse group of perspectives are included in the update process.

56:34 And then finally, just to wrap up with some next steps, just to be able to carry out the engagement activities laid out in each of these three tracks, we plan to do those, as Rebecca mentioned, throughout the course of the summer, kicking off with the community forum on June 22 that we're really looking forward to. We'll also be continuing the coordination with city departments to review the current CAF strategy actions and revise those as needed, as well as develop the work plans with priority actions for the next several years. And then finally, we're really excited to welcome a new intern this summer, Ezekiel Vils will be joining us through the Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership Program, he is an undergraduate and will be joining us for 10 weeks from June through August. We're excited for him to help support some of the engagement activities that we have planned this summer. So with that, I'll pass it on to Rebecca to close us out.

57:31 All right, well, this concludes our presentation slides. So as we move forward with these next steps, we wanted to check in with Council and ensure that what we've outlined here before you today is still in line with your direction and your priorities. And we're also, of course, happy to take any questions you might have. Councilor Stoeber, did you have any questions or comments? Let's go backwards. OK, Councilor Harris, Hanson, Paulson, Fox. OK. Councilor Fox, on the Concert Washington Conservation Action Group, you said you're having some discussions. Is this as part of a workshop series or what does that look like?

58:19 Well, we're still in discussion with them, but as they were one of the parties that helped convene a lot of the comprehensive plan update conversations, they brought together a lot of community based organizations to participate in some of that development. They also coordinated with the Clark County comprehensive plan update and brought together a lot of equity focused organizations to participate in that work. And so we're hoping to continue our relationship with them. And WCA has indicated that this would be a great opportunity for them to continue those relationships that they cultivated with the community as part of that process. So we'd like to work with them to continue the conversation specifically in Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain and Mountain View. That would be our primary focus for those conversations to really take some of those recommendations that the community made and see if we can work together to advance some of those.

59:15 Some examples of that would be putting together a community phone tree list. If there's an emergency situation, who in the neighborhood can we call? Who needs to be checked on? Putting together some of those emergency preparedness steps. So that would be an example of one sort of process that we'd like them to carry forward if we're able to align our schedules. And could you tell us a little bit more about the kind of the uptake on the EV toolkit, the EV installation toolkit? Isn't that what it's called? Something along those lines that was just completed? I would love to check in on that and get back with you. My colleague Stacey Dahlgaard who has just slept before family leave. So she'll be out for a few months, but we can check in with Laurel Priest in transportation planning and I can get you an update for that.

1:00:09 Because I'm imagining that kind of highlighting that toolkit at these tabling events would be something that would probably bear some fruit as well. So folks know it's available. >> Thank you so very much. Let's go ahead and get the fruit valley for all action plan update. And Shannon. >> Thank you, Rebecca. Just a couple of questions. With regard to partnerships, is there a timeline for formalizing that? And is there a mechanism for accountability?

1:00:59 And then my second question, you know, we just -- the state just issued this drought emergency and we expect quite a bit of a wildfire season if at best. And the climate action framework, I was looking for that intersection with smoke and wildfire risk and such. And it didn't stand out and it seemed like the natural systems one was the most applicable section. And if there was a way to strengthen that a little bit, I think that would really be more inclusive of the reality of what we're facing in this region.

1:01:48 >> Yes, council member, thank you for your questions and comments. The concern about wildfire smoke and resilience and adaptation was absolutely a concern that's come through from the community and from our city departments as well. So that is part of -- that is part of the development that we'd like to focus on for the update of the CAF strategies and actions this time kind of with this update. So that we can focus on some of those aspects of climate resilience and adaptation that we don't feel we developed as strongly during the original CAF adoption process. But the original version really is more focused on greenhouse gas emission reductions. So this is our opportunity to expand on that body of work. To your earlier questions, we are trying to, of course, wrap up our contracts with local partners as soon as possible.

1:02:40 We are already starting our engagement activities through our climate teams' attendance of events and community forums, but we are a small team. So we are looking to add some capacity to expand our reach into the community quite a bit. So we're hoping to have any of those contracts wrapped up, I'd say first couple weeks of June would be absolute latest. But one nice thing about the process that has funded a lot of our opportunities for community engagement, that grant is funded through a Washington Department of Commerce grant through the climate planning grants. And that funding period extends through June of 2027. So while we do need to have our conversations that are directly related to informing the CAF updates and strategies, we do need to have those wrapped up.

1:03:37 Probably, you know, September, October, absolute latest would be, you know, when we'd really be taking in new suggestions to revise those strategies. The ongoing conversations that this allows us to have, it allows us to continue those conversations about resilience and adaptation, specifically the conversations where our focus isn't just updating our own climate action plan. It's implementing the community identified priorities for making their neighborhoods safer and stronger and more resilient. So we have a more generous timeline to continue some of those conversations that this process is more of a springboard to give us the opportunity to start those conversations. But we do have a longer timeline to continue those conversations at a more thoughtful pace.

1:04:27 Okay, and then my last question is, the memo acknowledges a constrained budget forecast, and have you given any thought to any of the actions being deferred or deprioritized as a result? And would it be the community prioritization process that makes those calls or does it come back to city council? Well, ultimately, budget decisions rest in your hands. We are developing the department work plans as a way of pulling out the highest priority actions from the climate action framework. As it stands, you know, we have, I think, over 80 actions in this framework right now. And if everything's a priority, then nothing's a priority, so through that work plan process, that's really what we want to address. What are the most important things that we want our departments to focus on?

1:05:27 And so that's, just determining that is a combination of feedback directly from council, from the departments, what are they already working on? Where can we build on what they're already doing? And, you know, with some added capacity or resources, could you expand what you're doing to have more of a climate benefit? And then conversations with the community this summer as well. You know, I think there's, like you said, if this is a rough wildfire season, for example, I think we may hear some renewed or elevated concerns related to indoor air quality, outdoor air quality. And what are some measures that we can take as a community to try to keep people safe? Okay. So at some point, we'll hear on those priorities at the end. Yes. Thank you. Rebecca, let me grab you for a quick question.

1:06:26 Shannon and Paul, go ahead and come on up and let's get ready for Fruit Valley.

1:06:35 Good evening. Go ahead. Let's kick off Fruit Valley. There you go. Thank you, mayor and council, for your time and opportunity to present to you today. I'm Shannon Williams, senior planner, and I'm joined by Paul Porter, associate planner, both in community development department.

1:07:26 We are giving you an update today on the Fruit Valley for All project, which is a community-driven plan to bring much-needed resources to Fruit Valley, a community that needs it. Today we will provide a high-level overview of the project and highlight the project goals and community engagement strategy, including some initial input that we've been hearing so far. We will finish our presentation with the project timeline and next steps. So Fruit Valley was selected as the next location for a place-based action plan because it has one of the highest scores on the city's equity index map, and residents currently have limited access to basic services and amenities. The neighborhood is also fairly geographically isolated from the rest of Vancouver, which compounds the challenges that we've been hearing about, which we aim to address in the action plan.

1:08:23 The main goals of the Fruit Valley for All project are to update the 2010 Fruit Valley sub-area plan and to do so in a way that the action plan is co-developed with the community to guide future investments in Fruit Valley. Just as was done in the Fourth Plain area with the 2015 Fourth Plain Forward Action Plan and the 2023 Fourth Plain for All investment strategy, the approach taken with this project is a place-based approach to focus resources in a smaller geographic area for the greatest impacts. We had a lot of success with this strategy in the past in Fourth Plain, and we hope to have the same level of impact as we do the work in Fruit Valley. For this project, we were fortunate to receive a U.S. Department of Transportation Thriving Communities grant to support the project.

1:09:11 This is a non-monetary grant that provides the project with technical assistance, which has been used so far to support community engagement, and later in the project, later this year, will be used to help develop the actual action plan document and funding strategy. So the Fruit Valley project area is quite large geographically. It has a relatively small population of around 2,500 residents. The map on this slide shows the Fruit Valley for All project area in blue that extends to the westernmost edge of the Vancouver city limits bounded by the Columbia River, including the area adjacent to Vancouver Lake. The eastern boundary includes the BNSF rail lines moving south to Portway. The project area includes many industrial businesses along Fruit Valley Boulevard in the Port of Vancouver, and it is designated, the entire neighborhood is designated as a high priority equity area in the city's equity index.

1:10:10 So when compared to percentages in Vancouver as a whole, almost double the percentage of families in Fruit Valley are living below the poverty line. The community is also very diverse with almost double the Hispanic population, for example, and more people who speak a language other than English at home when compared to Vancouver. There are also a number of environmental justice factors to consider as we complete the action plan, such as proximity to freight traffic and rail lines, which can affect air quality, and a lower tree canopy and higher temperatures during heat events, as was highlighted in the recent Clark County Heat Watch Report. And before we dig into the engagement, I want to share the project vision statement that guides our project. We co-created this statement with the advisory committee that was created for the project, which we'll talk more about shortly. They helped us create a statement that is specific to Fruit Valley and captures what the community is hoping to see in the future.

1:11:08 So instead of reading it line by line, I'm going to highlight sections that were added because they've routinely been coming up in engagement and in conversations with the committee. Fruit Valley is a place where families choose to stay and neighbors know one another by name. It has tree-lined streets, community events, and shared public spaces, bring generations and cultures together, fostering connection and belonging, where neighbors show up for one another and have reliable access to affordable food and housing. These are all things that they would like to see more of in the future. And in a nod to the neighborhood's proximity to rail lines, it says Fruit Valley stands proudly on the right side of the tracks where everyone has a voice and a pathway to opportunity. So now I'll talk more about how we're engaging with the community. As we'll talk more about in the next slide, we're providing a variety of ways for the community to give input to hear from as many people as possible.

1:12:07 This is very important because what we hear from the community will directly shape the development of the Fruit Valley for All action plan. We're creating intentional engagement activities that are focused on building relationships and trust in the community. This will not only help us create a strong action plan, but as we move into implementation, this will be important since we'll still be working alongside the community as we implement the plan. We have two phases of engagement. We're currently in phase one, where we are focused on understanding the current challenges, needs and hopes for the Fruit Valley community. This input will be used to create a list of potential actions to include in the action plan. And then the second phase will begin in July of this year, where we will take that potential list of actions created during phase one input, confirm with the community that we interpreted correctly their input into actions that they would like to see implemented.

1:13:02 And then we'll also, in phase two, ask them to prioritize actions which will all be used to create the final action plan. So as I mentioned in the previous slide, we're providing a variety of ways to inform the community about the project and to ask them to engage with us to provide their input. We sent a postcard out to every resident and business and property owner in the project area to inform them of the project, direct them to the project website and invite them to take the survey. We also put out yard signs throughout the neighborhood to boost the visibility and awareness of the project. We currently have a community survey open and have been tabling at community events to collect input from the wider community. We'll also be hosting an in-person open house and also be at site-specific events, like an event we're doing next week at one of the local apartment buildings in collaboration with Reach CDC.

1:14:00 We've also engaged with the Port of Vancouver and local businesses, including in-person business canvassing, which will be continuing that business outreach throughout the summer. We'll also be scheduling some small group conversations with residents and businesses to have more in-depth conversations than what can be had during tabling or canvassing. We also provide compensation to community members who participate in more in-depth or long-term engagement activities to thank them for their time and commitment to the project, but also recognize the importance that they bring to the project by sharing their lived experience. We will also be setting up a table in the park just on an ad hoc, as it's nice just to be out in the community, just for the community to be able to talk to us, ask us questions about the project and provide input,

1:14:51 as well as taking advantage of existing community events as they arise, like we'll be at the movie in the park at Fruit Valley Park later in the summer, really just to talk to as many people as possible. So now Paul will talk about the advisory committee that we created to inform the project, which is an important aspect of our engagement strategy, and that it allows us to have in-depth conversations, more in-depth and longer than over the length of the project than what we can have in just tabling and general community activities. Hi, I'm Paul Porter, and let's talk about the advisory committee. One of our most important parts of our engagement strategy is the Fruit Valley for All Advisory Committee. The committee is made up of 15 diverse community representatives who are helping guide the development of the action plan. Members include residents, community-based organizations, youth, Vancouver Public School staff, and local service providers.

1:15:47 The committee will meet at least four times throughout the project, and members are compensated for their time and commitment. It signals that we value their expertise and their lived experience, and it removes barriers for participation. What makes the advisory committee especially valuable is the ability to have in-depth, honest conversations over multiple meetings with the same group, building trust, going deeper, and ensuring that the input we receive is rich and nuanced, not just surface level. The advisory committee has already met three times. Meeting one, members shared what they love about Fruit Valley and what they want to see more of. Strong themes include the sense of community, desire for more community spaces, and need for better food access and concerns about traffic safety and pollution. Meeting two, the group refined the vision statement and created a prioritized list of action plan categories,

1:16:46 such as access to food and resources as number one, housing as number two, transportation as number three, environmental health climate as number four, community building and public spaces as number five, and economic opportunity as number six. In meeting three, this session focused specifically on transportation safety and transit access. Staff from the city's transportation planning team and C-TRAN co-led breakout sessions to gather detailed input. The top challenges identified by the committee here were food access, transit options, and accessibility and affordable housing. Engagement and themes for the general community. And importantly, the general community feedback is aligning closely with what the advisory committee has told us, which gives us confidence that we're hearing a consistent message.

1:17:38 For our preliminary survey results, when asked about their vision for Fruit Valley's future, respondents ranked parks and green spaces as number one, public art and neighborhood beautification as number two, community events as number three, and safer pedestrian infrastructure as number four. When asked about the barriers they face, respondents ranked lack of access to food as number one, public safety as number two, and difficulty with transportation as number three, and lack of places to gather as number four. You'll see on the slide we have an example comment from the survey that we put out. We thought it was important to elevate voice here, so this is one of the comments that we received feedback on in the survey. It says, "More attention paid to this area for the residents that live in or nearby.

1:18:27 It seems that it is most heavily commercial and industrial, and the area needs more access to restaurants, shopping, grocery store, and other daily essentials." For the project timeline, here's where we are in the overall timeline. Summer to winter of 2025, we did project planning, existing conditions assessment, relationship building, and formed the advisory committee. Early in 2026, where we are now in phase one, is community engagement, gathering input on challenges, needs, and desires. The advisory committee is now currently active. So for late 2026 is the phase two of engagement, bringing proposed actions back to the community for feedback and prioritization. 2027 and beyond, we hope to adopt and implement the action plan, working with the community partners and seeking funding to support community prioritized actions.

1:19:22 We are on track and moving at a deliberate but steady pace that prioritizes genuine community input. As far as our next steps, we're looking ahead to the coming months. Our immediate next steps are workshops with businesses in and around Fruit Valley, increased outreach to the general community to broaden participation, continued engagement with the Port of Vancouver and their tenants, who are significant stakeholders in the area, and the final advisory committee meetings to wrap up phase one of that input. Shannon Williams and I would like to thank you for your time and open this moment up for questions. >> Thank you so very much. Ann McInerney, Ogle Mayor for the city. Paul, for several years we have been working to create a new freight corridor to eliminate the issues of semis next to this school,

1:20:22 next to the park, next to that entire residential area. Do we have a most current map that is showing these individuals new bridge, new freight corridor west of Fruit Valley right now? >> I don't believe we have. >> I know that there's a team in public works currently working on that project and we can certainly give you the most updated. We don't have it ready -- we don't have that because I know that they're working through the exact alignment right now. There's some sensitive areas to kind of work around, but we can get you the most up-to-date information on that. >> There are. There are some levies back in there that they need to navigate around in private property.

1:21:11 But city manager, removing semis from running in front of an elementary school next to Vancouver housing authority, getting them away from the park is something that is extremely important and has been 16 years in the works. We know right now it's a $150 million project that needs to be identified, put into phases, put into different categories. But as all of these residents and businesses and as your advisory group is looking at it, they need to understand that there's a great opportunity here to remove all of that freight away from the neighborhood,

1:22:01 bring it around the west side and putting that into a priority action step that is going to make a world of difference for many of the priorities that they have on that list. >> Absolutely. That's something that is consistently echoed amongst community and the committee as well. >> Yeah. So let's see if we can't -- as we are prioritizing land use, budgeting, transportation, we have state grant opportunities for new bridges, new roadways, new freight corridors, and it would be a huge asset to this particular project. Diana, let's start with you. Sorry I missed you the last time. Do you have anything on this particular topic?

1:22:55 >> I do. Thank you, Paul and Shannon. My question really is a little bit tied to what the mayor is asking, but it seems like the environmental health and climate appears as a category without any elaboration on what the residents have actually said about pollution or air quality or industrial impacts, and this really has to do about identifying any specific pathways to address accountability or mitigation commitments. So that's the one thing that stood out for me at this point. >> Have you talked about that or is there a way to -- is that the next step in identifying these paths or to be a little bit more specific on what about pollution?

1:23:54 Is it the diesel truck? Is it the railway? Is it some specificity? And I know that you said continued outreach with the Port of Vancouver, but there's also other pollution factors there in the area. >> Yeah, part of that there is a lack of data that would get to some of that. So there has been progress made in the community just recently. If it hasn't already been placed, the Department of Ecology is in the process of placing an air quality monitor in the neighborhood at Fruit Valley Park. So I know that they're working with folks of the city in order to do that. That will help give us some data on what the air quality levels are. A lot of what we hear about is a little bit more anecdotal. So if you talk to residents, they'll tell you about asthma, experiences with asthma going up and down throughout the year,

1:24:53 when it's hotter, depending on what's going on weather-wise. If it's concentrated, they feel it on a very visceral level in their breathing and ability to breathe. We've heard that a number of times, but the data isn't there. So I think that's one of the actions that we will likely be putting into the action plan is how do we actually capture the data needed to do some of that mitigation work to back up what we're hearing the residents talk about. And that pathway to where we can work in partnership to avoid or have accountability or further mitigate. So I guess my next step would be to see that pathway. That's it, Mayor. Thank you. Councilor Fuchs?

1:25:51 Yes, go ahead. One of my first questions, I guess, is how big is your team that's working on this project? We do have an intern, and like I said, we have a Thriving Communities grant that has given us some engagement support as we've needed it. It's limited, but we have Point North that is there to support as we need it. And then we also are working really closely with Clark County Public Health. So Lauren Henderson from Clark County Public Health is also kind of on our project team as well. We meet with her regularly and she's there at the committee meetings. And as we do engagement, she'll be at some of the engagement activities as well. OK, that helps me orient myself a little bit to this project.

1:26:42 But one of the pieces that I look to first whenever I'm looking at community engagement is what are the boundaries of this community? And the map is showing this very large Fruit Valley area, which isn't really the neighborhood area. And so I'm just wondering if some of the support that could be provided to your team would be to put together a more accurate area, defining the actual area of this community, not saying we don't want to include industrial lands and whatnot, but maybe the map could better depict the current uses that are happening in the neighborhood, or I guess any project can define its own boundaries as well to say this is the boundaries of this particular project and it doesn't have to be all the way wrapping around Vancouver Lake. So it just feels like it would be a project that's easier to understand for a lot of folks of like now what are we tackling,

1:27:40 what are we focusing on instead of this area that doesn't even have residents. It just has a lot of vacant land and park land to the west. And then kind of building on the comment by the mayor, too, I was thinking when we talk a lot of folks are visual like me and when you come across a project and you see the boundaries, but you also want to know what is happening on the land now, but also that future land map would be helpful. And so how are we having those conversations to show, to really depict the future vision areas, as you're hearing that they want to have more open spaces or they want to have more community gathering spaces, how are we identifying the possible areas for those to occur? Typically, you know, you should be showing maybe zoning that allows for those uses or something along those lines. So I'm just wondering if that's part of the conversations that will happen this summer.

1:28:40 Yeah. And that was part of also the existing conditions research and work that we did. So we do have zoning maps. Of course, that'll be updated with the comprehensive plan update. We will be having conversations with the Fruit Valley community around density. Is this something that they would like to see? Where, if so, would they like to see it? Those kind of questions will actually be highlighting in meeting four in terms of the boundary. That is something that we did discuss. Do we want to include the entire neighborhood boundary? Because that is actually the neighborhood boundary. Or do we want to narrow in on the residential area? But we decided to keep it large because we thought it was important to include the industrial area and not exclude that. So we are talking to some of those, you know, we're working with the port to talk with some of their tenants and some of those industrial businesses. Because there's a lot of people that come into the Fruit Valley area every day, Monday through Friday.

1:29:40 Probably not just Monday through Friday, but that are coming in regularly and spending a lot of time in Fruit Valley that can also provide input to the to the project as well. And so we didn't want to kind of exclude that input. And also there were conversations that happened a couple of years ago with a group of parents at Fruit Valley Elementary. And they talked a lot about wanting access to the open spaces, better access. So that was another reason why we kept the whole neighborhood boundary so that we could include some of those natural areas for, you know, if we were to kind of map out where some of those pedestrian and bike, you know, multi mobility paths might be if any are needed to kind of support that access that they talked about a couple of years ago. Yeah, there used to be a lot more open space access when the farms were active down there.

1:30:31 You know, I just remember as a kid going down to those farms, either to work there or to shop there. And so it just felt like there was a lot more access to open spaces. Then, of course, now those spaces are relatively developed. All right. Thank you. Thank you. In addition, Councilor Harless, go ahead. Kim Harless, Council Member. I didn't have a question, more just a thank you for having such a good model for engagement. And, you know, looking through, you know, the timeline, you didn't start by just jumping into forming a committee. You started by creating relationships, by investing in the community, and that was part of the plan first. And then, you know, now we're in the space of the committee being assembled and starting to work and be at the table to shape the plan themselves, that it's not a plan that's just for them, but by them.

1:31:31 And that's just amazing. So this is what I love and appreciate about the direction that our city is going and something that went out about talking to other jurisdictions and like, oh, we got we got things really in a good direction and come come see what we're doing. So just again, just wanted to say just express gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Stauber. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the time in front of us today. I'll start real quickly. We've been hearing about that ecology monitor for a very long time. Do we know why it's taken so long? My understanding is that for there's been a new type of monitor that they designed in house that is much smaller and cheaper to to create, to build.

1:32:24 And so that's enabled them to put more monitors throughout their community, you know, throughout the state, not just here. So I think that's probably a big reason why we're seeing more, you know, in the communities and why we have one in Fruit Valley. They were in Vancouver last year kind of doing some outreach to to gauge where the monitor should go. And I think from that, Fruit Valley was highlighted and is going to if it hasn't already received. We can get an update on when that might be actually put up if it hasn't already been. So this is not the first time we've done this during my tenure on council. You may brief mention to it. This is a neighborhood that's very important to me.

1:33:21 I've spent time down there with the parents, with kids at the elementary school. It's very important to me. And I don't want. Us to walk away from it again. So I'm interested in hearing how does something actually come to fruition down here? And it's not just giving a nod to people that, oh, yeah, you still exist. But but actually following through in this process. Absolutely. Couldn't agree with you more. I mean, the one the first thing that comes to mind is as we are working through what our next biennium work plan might be with Rebecca. She asked, are we ready to go to Walnut Grove? I said I would love to.

1:34:16 But we have a team of two and we need to focus on implementation of this action plan over the next couple of years. I see it going similar to how we did it in fourth plane, where once we have the action plan, this is our roadmap. And we will look for funding and other sources working with partners, et cetera, to actually implement the items in the in the action plan. And this could be things big and small. It could be some beautification activities, you know, or it could be something like replacing the the old fire station that was used as a community building for the neighborhood association had to be torn down last year. It could be looking for funding to rebuild something that could bring the community together, going for our commerce grant or other funding that actually build something. So those are the kind of things that we'll be working for over the next couple of years and beyond, not just in the next two years.

1:35:15 And I'm I'm excited about that potential of what's next. This is my vision. It's not the community's vision. I want to see a night market down there. I want to see traditional Latin culture have the opportunity to come together and then to create their own community. So and that be a year round space for them, which doesn't have to be enclosed, but it has to be covered, has to have power and create that sense of community that you're hearing from them. Thank you. Thank you. Shannon, Paul, as you work through this, would you please put your extra attention. I know Vancouver School District is looking at budget cuts. I also know that Fruit Valley Elementary School is a very small school, but it's very unique.

1:36:13 And we fought for that. This Vancouver City Council fought to keep Vancouver Elementary School there. They were going to make it a K3. We said, no, it needs to go all the way to fifth grade. They need to keep their fifth graders there. But as you're going through this, make sure that if you hear anything about Vancouver Public Schools looking to cut this elementary school, that you bring it to our attention as soon as possible, because there are members of this council that will go and testify at that school board meeting to keep that there. That is the heart of this community. And it builds families. It builds relationships. We have a relationship with Vancouver Housing Authority down there to remove that school would destroy a very unique opportunity.

1:37:10 So thank you so very much for jumping on this. We'll go after the one hundred and fifty million dollars to get the semis away from the children and the families. But we're looking forward to all the technical assistance you might need to make this happen. And we expect to see some items in the budget coming up for that. OK, great. Thank you. Thank you. You bet. All right, council, that concludes our workshops for this afternoon. Let's go grab a bite to eat and we will be back for our six thirty regular council meeting.