Planning the Future of the St. Helens Community Waterfront

The City of St. Helens, Oregon, is situated along the Columbia River and has a population of less than 15,000. St. Helens saw the closing of two of its major employers—a plywood veneer plant and a paper mill—between 2008 and 2012, resulting in the loss of approximately 900 jobs and leaving a large swath of waterfront property vacant. The properties have great potential for redevelopment but natural areas, inactive landfills, industrial contamination, and active business tenants contribute to the complex environment the city faces in attracting investment from public and private parties to redevelop its waterfront landscape. 

To address this challenge, the City of St. Helens hired MFA to support and guide the waterfront revitalization, involving over 215 acres of industrial waterfront property. The City initially engaged MFA to perform due diligence and evaluate redevelopment potential. MFA is providing a full range of services to St. Helens and helped the City obtain multiple grants for planning, community engagement, and technical evaluations. MFA led a multidisciplinary team tasked with evaluating market trends, infrastructure conditions, transportation systems, and environmental conditions. The process included a significant community engagement effort. 

MFA provided support to the City throughout the planning process, especially regarding effective stakeholder outreach. The planning process included stakeholder interviews, an advisory group, and community meetings. These meetings were well-attended and live streamed or published as recordings on the City’s social media channels to provide wider access to the information. 

MFA also assisted the City in obtaining Business Oregon funding and a USEPA Area-Wide Planning Grant to produce a framework plan for redevelopment of key waterfront properties, focusing on land uses, open space and public amenities, and new multimodal transportation connections. The plan includes an extensive implementation strategy that considers a range of financing options, such as urban renewal, as well as strategies for attracting public/private partnerships. 

MFA is also leading the City through a reuse feasibility study to determine the viability of filling the city’s wastewater lagoon near the Columbia River, providing more prime waterfront land for development. Along with advanced engineering analyses, our communications team is helping the City and the public engage in meaningful dialogue as they work together to determine the future of the St. Helens waterfront.