Through rain and hail, about 30 residents gathered near Pioneer Street and Royle Road on Saturday, May 17, to voice concerns about the Port of Ridgefield’s proposed waterfront redevelopment.
Opponents say the project could bring more traffic and parking challenges, larger-scale housing and hotel construction, and new pressures on migratory birds and wildlife near the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
On Saturday, several opponents expressed concerns that noise, lighting and increased activity could affect sensitive habitat areas.
Over time, the waterfront would evolve into a mixed-use district blending economic development, housing and recreation. The full site plan includes a 58-room boutique hotel, an array of buildings ranging from office/commercial, mixed-use and residential. The Port of Ridgefield would also move its headquarters into a new waterfront office building. The full site plan includes a roughly 9-acre park, with one active area including trails to the north, and a south zone for active play and recreation, including an amphitheater.
The project remains in the planning phase, with construction on initial infrastructure potentially beginning as early as 2027. Readers can learn more about the project at portridgefield.org/ridgefield-waterfront.
Saturday’s demonstration, organized by Preserve the Ridgefield Waterfront, came after weeks of growing public opposition.
Several residents said they were surprised by the scale of the development after seeing conceptual plans at the port’s Spring Commission Coffee on April 21 at the Clark County Fairgrounds. More than 20 people spoke against the proposal at the April 23 Ridgefield City Council meeting, and public concern continued at the May 15 council meeting, where comments lasted nearly 50 minutes.
Attendees waved signs reading “Birds Not Bulldozers,” “Save Our Waterfront,” “Protect Our Refuge” and “Birds Before Buildings” while standing along the roadside near Rosauers. Several participants later planned to attend a scheduled council chat featuring Ridgefield Mayor Matt Cole and Councilmember Meghan Hamilton at nearby Eight Cow Creamery.
Preserve the Ridgefield Waterfront describes itself as a community-led group focused on protecting the waterfront’s character, accessibility and ecological health. Organizer Robynne Knight said the current waterfront helped shape her connection to Ridgefield after moving to the city.
“When I first moved to Ridgefield, the waterfront was one of the places that made me fall in love with this town,” organizer Robynne Knight said. “It’s been a place that I’ve been able to go and walk and decompress, spend time after work just being in nature, listening to the birds, watching the wildlife. Being able to watch a sunset down there in the quiet, only being able to hear the wind and the birds is something everyone should be able to experience and once the port starts their development down there, we’ll never have that opportunity again.”
Knight said the group wants an environmental impact statement before any development agreements move forward, citing the project’s proximity to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
“One of the concerns that a lot of us have is the impact that that development is going to have on the neighboring refuge because that area butts right up next to the wildlife refuge,” Knight said. “A lot of us are concerned about the impact of the noise, the lights, the constant human presence that’s going to be at a volume much higher than it is now, and how that’s going to impact migratory birds and other wildlife that use the refuge.”
She also questioned whether residents understood the full scale of the redevelopment during earlier outreach from the port.
“I think people have just assumed that they listened to us and that they were gonna keep it recreational space,” Knight said. “It wasn’t until it came out a few weeks ago that there was actually this development concept being planned for a commercial residential, hotel, other things that aren’t a park and that the park was actually only going to be a (few) acres along the front of the waterfront.”
Knight said Saturday’s turnout proved that a wide range of residents are gathering around a shared concern for the waterfront’s future.
“I’m really proud of our community for showing up and getting together to work on this issue,” Knight said. “It’s bringing together people from all ages, all professions, all walks of life, and political leanings. There may be other things that we don’t agree with if we were to get down to the nitty gritty, but on this one issue we are united, and that’s really inspiring.”
Ridgefield resident Shanna Sepe visits the waterfront daily with her family and worries the redevelopment could change the city’s character and put new strain on local infrastructure.
“My relationship to it is daily use,” Sepe said. “I walk there daily with my three-year-old son and my friends. It’s a good place for him to ride his bike and run around.” she said.
She said earlier public surveys did not make clear how large the proposal would be.
“My first complaint is just let everybody have a say,” Sepe said. “I understand they need to make money, but I think there are other ways and better ways that the community could help them come up with,” she said.
Sepe also raised concerns about how new housing and commercial uses could affect traffic and infrastructure.
“They’re saying there’d be 250 new workers plus 350 units, so that’s at least, you know, (several hundred) new cars every day down there, and there’s not the infrastructure for it,” Sepe added. “Their only explanation has been to us that Pioneer Street will just become a highway. There’ll be no parking, but that’s not a good enough explanation in my eyes.”
Many demonstrators focused on environmental concerns, especially the impact on migratory bird habitats near the wildlife refuge.
“I think that the number one killer of birds is cats and windows, and they’re trying to put a very large apartment structure right by Carty Lake where there’s unique birds that come there to migrate every year and breed,” Sepe said.
By Monday morning, an online petition opposing the redevelopment had 1,776 signatures.
