Lower Grand Employment Area Action Plan
Client: City of Vancouver
Location: Vancouver, WA
The City of Vancouver engaged MFA to implement an area-wide planning project to work with property owners, businesses, and neighbors to identify and prioritize needed improvements to address deteriorating and substandard streets, localized flooding, and other concerns in the Lower Grand Employment Area (LGEA). The project is funded through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfield Area-Wide Planning Grant.
The project took a comprehensive look at existing conditions in the LGEA to understand the conditions that impact redevelopment potential in an underperforming area. MFA convened two focused planning workshops with area stakeholders to identify specific areas of concern and review opportunities for improvement. After reviewing the outcomes of the existing conditions analysis and the stakeholder engagement, MFA worked with the city to design improvements to public infrastructure to address critical challenges. The project team took a basin-wide approach to evaluating stormwater management and prioritized low-impact development solutions in our designs.
The final LGEA action plan identifies future road alignments and infrastructure design solutions and includes strategies for funding infrastructure improvements and assessing and remediating brownfields. It also positions the city to pursue grants and other funding for identified improvements.
With MFA’s help, the City achieved the following results:
- Established a public/private partnership with a local business and property owner, resulting in new jobs and infrastructure improvements in the LGEA
- Positioned the City to receive grant funding from the Department of Ecology to implement an integrated Low-Impact Design street and stormwater system