The Wilmington Marinas Planning Study kicked off with a community meeting on June 5. The Study is in response to several Port Community Advisory Committee (PCAC) motions related to the Anchorage Road Soil Storage Site.  Through December 2011, the site will be used to store dredge material from Port projects.  Responding to community concerns, the Port has committed to discontinue use of this site by December of 2011.  The Study is being conducted to provide analysis and a recommended plan for the Wilmington Marina area. Elements of the Study include developing a land use plan for the Anchorage Road Storage Site and to develop a strategy for infrastructure improvements for the Wilmington Marinas.

After an introduction and overview discussion, including comments from Harbor Commission Vice President Jerilyn López Mendoza, the participants were broken into groups to work on three different exercises: conceptual land use plan; infrastructure improvements for the marinas; and landscape parkway.  Each group reviewed an aerial of the site and placed trees, open space, structures, wetlands, signage as they would like to see them; prioritized what they felt the marinas needed most in terms of infrastructure improvements (i.e. access, road improvements, utilities, sewer, oil disposal and any other suggestions); and provided feedback on priorities on spending the secured funding through China Shipping Mitigations Funds for the parkway.  Each group was also presented a hypothetical budget and costs for common open space space elements like trees, benches, trash receptacles, and kids play areas. As part of this exercise they were asked what they would purchase with their budget.  Group facilitators then reported what each group wanted.   

Next steps include a second community meeting to review conceptual plan alternatives based on feedback from the June 5 workshop. Then, a third community meeting will be held to present the preferred conceptual plan based on input from all previous meetings.  The ultimate goal is to present the conceptual plan to the Board of Harbor Commissioners by the end of the year for their adoption.

Click here for the presentation.