In an already busy development, developers are proposing a two-story medical office building just west of Costco in the Union Ridge Town Center at Ridgefield’s junction of Pioneer Street and Interstate 5.
The commercial development in the Ridgefield Junction subarea will already feature numerous retail buildings, an In-N-Out Burger opening this sooner than later, Costco and even a proposed YMCA in the same traffic pattern.
An application for what is currently being dubbed the Union Ridge Town Center Medical Office Building was submitted to the city of Ridgefield in March with a pre-application conference taking place on April 8. The proposal is for a two-story, 30,368-square-foot medical office with associated parking, landscaping, stormwater and utilities.
The pre-application conference report by the Ridgefield Community Development Department was issued on Tuesday, April 22. The city identified traffic impacts, access, landscaping and commercial development standards as potential issues for the basic site plan. The site would be accessed at the intersection of North Pioneer Canyon Drive and North 53rd Place, just west of Costco.
The applicants, AKS Engineering and Forestry, asked if parking capacity could be reduced for the medical clinic during the pre-application conference, but city staff requested a parking study to be submitted with the request.
The property currently holds riparian habitat and oak habitat with Oregon white oak on site. A State Environmental Policy Act review is required for the 11.12-acre project due to the presence of critical natural areas on site, the pre-application report states. The city emailed the applicants of the project the best management practices for Oregon white oak mitigation by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as the applicants said during the conference that a couple of white oaks will need to be removed.
The project aligns with Ridgefield’s vision for a full-service city. The Ridgefield Junction subarea already has included big-box retail, and fast food restaurants are coming soon. Additional gas stations and the Clark College at Boschma Farms site are in the works. A senior living facility is now under construction, with more proposed.
“It’s targeted growth to implement a vision that was created by our community and council many years ago,” Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart said in a previous article about the Junction subarea. “And you know, the goal is to do it in a high quality fashion, reflective of the values that our community holds. With any growth, there’s struggle, there is change. With that change comes opportunity, it comes connection. That is something that we continuously strive for, is to make sure that the way we grow is something that our community can be proud of.”
Vancouver Clinic currently has a smaller medical clinic in the city; however, the tenants of the proposed two-story facility remain unknown.
