Neighbors of C-Tran’s Fisher’s Landing center wary of potential development

It’s easy to miss while driving through, but Fisher’s Landing is big, large enough to encompass all of Esther Short Park and several surrounding intersections and partial city blocks. Yet large swaths of the property are undeveloped — the most obvious section is at the corner of Southeast Cascade Park Drive and Southeast 164th Avenue.

Through a feasibility study, C-Tran is exploring the possibility of reconstructing the entire property into a transit-oriented development. Inspired by new and transformative mixed-use developments like Columbia Tech Center, the agency has enlisted the help of architecture and design firms to re-imagine what their property could become.

During the meeting, the public got its first look at a conceptual drawing that placed a slightly larger transit station on the southwest corner of the property, with a blend of apartment buildings, open space, a brewpub, shopping and business space around it.

“We think it’s an exciting concept. I need to stress this is the study, period,” said C-Tran spokeswoman Christine Selk. “Along with our consultants, we’re taking an interested look at what the possibilities could be and what could be a good fit.”

The neighborhood association leaders of the Village at Fisher’s Landing, a development that sits across Southeast 164th from the transit center, say there are several good things about the development and what it can offer for them and their neighbors. But, they worry an expanded Fisher’s Landing will bring more noise, pollution and crime. Should C-Tran move forward, they want certain mitigations to offset certain impacts that might come with it.

“We want them to consider the neighborhood issues,” said Ronny Plushnick, the Village neighborhood association’s treasurer. “We were here before C-Tran and … now they want to expand.”

A row of several houses within the development are separated from 164th by a roughly 5-foot-tall block-and-brick wall. But the residents say it does little to mitigate traffic noise. Though they can’t prove it, they see C-Tran buses across the street as offering an easy escape for criminals who occasionally slip into people’s homes or outbuildings. A larger development, they think, will only bring more of those types around and could have a negative effect on their home values.

“We’d like to work with them,” Village neighborhood association vice president Carrie Dye Haynes said. “I think the biggest hurdle they’re hearing from us is a wall. That’s the only solution. … But we can’t afford it as a neighborhood to make it a 10-foot wall.”

She said some residents have taken it into their own hands, building a taller wooden fence in front of the wall.

If, as the concept design displays, buildings several stories tall are built along 164th, the people living along the wall in the Village could have their privacy compromised, said neighborhood association president Carl Trinacty.

He said C-Tran is communicating well with them and even plans to attend an upcoming neighborhood association meeting to talk with residents. But, the association isn’t “rolling over,” he said.

“All we want to do is have a cooperation with C-Tran and we will work hard to get our demands met,” Trinacty said. “We’re here to protect our residents.”

Selk reiterated that the project is still only in the exploration phase. And, part of that work is talking with neighborhood groups and the community at large to learn their needs and desires.

“We definitely heard the concerns of neighbors,” she said. “If and when we move forward with this project we will continue to involve them and listen to comments and concerns.”