The land is adjacent State Route 501, between Vancouver Lake and the Columbia River. As part of the required Columbia Gateway Environmental Impact Statement, the port held an open house this week to detail the proposal.

Prior to any development, Port spokeswoman Maureen Chan-Hefflin has told GlobeSt.com that the land, which is within the 100-year flood plain, will have to be raised with five million cubic feet of fill dredged from the Columbia River, an action also to be addressed in the EIS.

Clark County will need 3,000 acres of prime, developable industrial in order to generate the 66,000 new jobs that will be needed to keep up with population growth over the next 22 years, according to a new report by the Columbia River Economic Development Council. Of the 3,000 acres needed, the county currently has only about 807 acres of such land, much of it spread out among many smaller parcels, and current absorption trends show Clark County using up between 220 and 280 net acres per year since 1994.

Ridgefield, located north of Vancouver but still in Clark County, has the largest inventory of undeveloped, industrially zoned land on either side of the Columbia. The City of Ridgefield recently annexed 1,800 acres, the bulk of which is designated in the city's comprehensive plan to be zoned for industrial or business park developments.

As a result, there's been a fair amount of real estate activity in Ridgefield. Pacific Detroit Diesel recently purchase land for a development and the Schuck Corp. of Colorado just acquired control of 240 acres to which it plans to install infrastructure and then sell off lots for development.

In the most recent market report from the full Norris Beggs & Simpson, Clark County reportedly has 300,000 sf of industrial space under construction and as much as 3.5 million sf of space in the pipeline. Among this year's projects are the 48,000-sf Salmon Creek Warehouse and 144,000 sf of space in two buildings at 205 Distribution Park. Vacancy rates at multi-tenant parks are at 8%, having dropped from a record high of 10% in 1999.