Waterfront Redevelopment Project Update Meeting

Watercolor picture of St. Helens riverfront with mixed use buildings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 4, 2018

St. Helens, Ore. – The St. Helens community is invited to attend a Waterfront Redevelopment Project update meeting on Wednesday, October 17 at 6 p.m. in the St. Helens Council Chambers. Attendees will hear a brief history of the Waterfront Redevelopment Project and learn about current waterfront redevelopment efforts. Representatives from Tokola Properties Inc. will also share their vision to redevelop a portion of the former Boise Veneer property.

The entire public forum video will be hosted live on the City’s website (https://www.ci.st-helens.or.us/bc/page/agendas-minutes-videos) during the event. The video will also be published to the same site within a week of the meeting. The presentation will be uploaded to the Project Website (https://www.ci.st-helens.or.us/planning/page/waterfront-redevelopment-pr...) within a week of the meeting.

About the Waterfront Redevelopment Project

In 2015, the City of St. Helens purchased the former Boise Veneer Mill and White Paper sites and launched the Waterfront Redevelopment Project. Maps of the project area, a timeline of the project, and other details can be found on the Project Website (https://www.ci.st-helens.or.us/planning/page/waterfront-redevelopment-pr...).  

Major redevelopment projects are expensive, and local governments often rely heavily on a combination of state and federal grants and loans to finance the work. To be eligible to receive these types of funds, local governments must often prove in their applications that they have already adopted plans that provide a framework for development.

In the past decade, City of St. Helens staff has worked hard to update old plans and adopt new ones that provide the necessary framework to make the City a competitive applicant for receiving major state and federal redevelopment funds.

The City has been successful in obtaining several state and federal grants that have allowed St. Helens to conduct site assessments, hold meetings to gather community feedback, and create a framework plan for waterfront redevelopment. The October 17 project update meeting is intended to summarize these past efforts and describe what is to come for the Waterfront Redevelopment Project.

Anyone interested in receiving updates on the Waterfront Redevelopment Project is encouraged to follow the City’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/cityofsthelens/) and subscribe to the City’s e-Newsletter (https://www.ci.st-helens.or.us/community/page/newsletters) where future meetings will be announced.

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For further information regarding the Waterfront Redevelopment Project, please contact Associate Planner Jenny Dimsho at jdimsho@ci.st-helens.or.us or 503-366-8207.