The Port of Vancouver will hold a public workshop after its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday to draft a vision statement detailing the future of the port.
The port’s current vision statement is, “A premier port that is globally recognized and well capitalized with state-of-the-industry facilities, infrastructure and service providing accountable economic benefit.”
Earlier this month, commissioners expressed a desire to update the language if the port achieved their existing goal. Since the port drafted its existing statement, several major developments have increased the scope of its infrastructure and capacity — a larger staff, a new CEO, completion of the West Vancouver Freight Access project, and work on the Terminal 1 property, among other changes.
Commissioners are also hoping to turn the focus of the vision statement from the port to the surrounding community at large, said commission President Eric LaBrant.
“There’s a type of vision statement that focuses more on, what will the community look like if we’re successful,” LaBrant said Friday. “There’s a lot of different ways to define that, and it’s probably not a bad idea to keep those various definitions in mind. The community could mean the Clark County business community, it could mean the folks who live in the port district, it could mean Clark County as a whole or the whole region.”
It also feels as though the port has already achieved its current vision, LaBrant said. It’s time to turn their eyes to the bigger picture.
“The existing vision statement really is more focused on the port, and it does seem like we’ve sort of reached those,” he said.
The Port of Vancouver is also in the midst of updating its strategic plan, a yearlong effort between commissioners, staff, stakeholders and community partners to revisit a document that hadn’t been changed in around 10 years. It released a draft of the new strategic plan last week, detailing specific goals in six categories: community, economic development, environmental, financial, organizational and marine and industrial business.
While the strategic plan deals in details, the vision statement will take a wider view.
“The recurring theme at the last workshop when we were discussing it was around a liveable community — what does that entail? It’s making sure we have jobs for people who are wanting to support themselves or support themselves. It also means having clean air and clean water,” LaBrant said. “We really can’t fail at either one of those.”
The workshop will take place immediately after the port’s meeting, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at 3101 Lower River Road.
