Demolition to resume at old mill site
Demolition at the former Boise Cascade mill site is expected to resume as early as Thursday.
Company, preservation and city officials met at the site Tuesday morning to discuss what steps need to be taken before demolition takes up where it ended late last month.
City officials halted the demolition after finding that an environmental review had not been conducted before a demolition permit was issued Aug. 2.
Later on Tuesday, Boise officials hired Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc., to photograph remaining structures at the 29-acre site, said Jon Wagner of the city's Development Review Services.
Those photos and archival company photos will be filed with the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Wagner said.
Once that information is submitted, demolition can resume, he said.
Last week, three preservation agencies asked the city to stop the demolition until a historical review could be compiled on the former mill's structures.
Public comment on the environmental review of the project ended last week.
By the time the demolition was halted, however, several buildings had already been leveled. The demolished structures included two buildings that may have stood since a pulp mill operated on the site in the 1920s.
Preservationists saw an opportunity to save part of Vancouver's industrial past.
"With the loss of the Kaiser Shipyards, Lucky (Lager) Brewery and the Hidden Brick Factory, a significant portion of Vancouver's industrial past has already disappeared," wrote Greg Griffith of the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. "The Boise Cascade complex may represent a good, and perhaps vanishing, opportunity for Vancouver to creatively adapt historic industrial buildings as a magnet for new uses."
Also, Rob Freed, chairman of the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission, recommended that an architectural historian compile an inventory of the Boise buildings -- the step that Boise plans to take.
Griffith and Freed were among those who toured the site Tuesday.
Wagner said the investigation will focus on above-ground structures only.
A separate archaeological survey may take place at a later date.
On Aug. 1, a group of Clark County investors, led by Gramor Development of Tualatin, announced an agreement with Boise to purchase the mill property. A closing is expected before year's end. A sale price has not been announced.
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