Vancouver officials, Fruit Valley residents plan neighborhood revitalization
Vancouver officials are in the early stages of planning an initiative for the Fruit Valley neighborhood similar to the one that boosted the Fourth Plain area.
The city's multiyear effort, Fourth Plain Forward, focused attention and investment on the economically distressed section of East Fourth Plain Boulevard between Interstate 5 and 65th Avenue. It also led to the creation of a nonprofit organization by the same name.
Fruit Valley faces similar challenges. Almost half of Fruit Valley residents live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, more than double the countywide rate of 21.7 percent, and 22.7 percent of Fruit Valley residents have less than a high school education compared to 7.2 percent across the county.
And like the Fourth Plain area, Fruit Valley residents are more likely to be people of color. Of Fruit Valley's 2,723 residents, 46 percent identify with a race or ethnicity other than white or non-Hispanic compared to 28.9 percent countywide.
The city launched its Fruit Valley effort in June by building relationships within the neighborhood. Then, in January, the city formed an advisory committee of 15 Fruit Valley residents, organizations, workers and advocates, said Shannon Williams, a Vancouver senior planner.
"It really is co-created with the community," Williams said. "We want them to take as much ownership over this process as possible."
Williams, fellow city planner Paul Porter and intern Gabriella Benitez Bella are gathering input from residents on what changes they'd like to see, with the goal of presenting an action plan for adoption by the city council in 2027.
Williams and Porter said they aren't going in with a set blueprint but with a question: What do residents want their community to become?
"A lot of times, people felt like things were happening to them, not for them," said Porter, an associate planner on the city of Vancouver's equitable development team. "Now it's about building the community alongside them and building relationships, because it's not a one-and-done thing."
The ideas are already flowing. For example, advisory committee member Sebastian Ortega-Zavala, 12, said he would like more gathering spaces beyond Fruit Valley Park and the elementary school.
"I would imagine that there would at least be a library or an actual public space that isn't the park," Ortega-Zavala said. "Too many people sleep on Fruit Valley due to its size or how it looks, but I feel like a lot more people should know that it is actually a nice community."
Orchards to industry
The orchards and farms that once stretched across Fruit Valley gave the area its name. Since then, houses, railroads and industry have replaced prune and peach trees.
During World War I, the G.M. Standifer Construction Corp. built two shipyards on the Columbia River. The shipyards, as well as the railroad, established the industrial area seen today.
By 1942, the Kaiser shipyard opened in Vancouver to build ships for World War II. The Vancouver Housing Authority constructed 300 permanent wartime homes in Fruit Valley to house workers. Two years later, Fruit Valley Elementary opened.
After World War II, the wartime homes were sold, and the Fruit Valley Homes subdivision was built.
Then, on Memorial Day 1948, the Vanport flood forced 200 families to evacuate. In 1949, the Fruit Valley Neighborhood Association formed and raised funds to build a dike to protect the low-lying area from future flooding.
Over time, the neighborhood group has established itself as an influential force. It pushed back against encroaching industries and remodeled an abandoned fire station into a community center in the early 1980s.
The neighborhood's history of industrial development and concentrated working-class population continues to shape present-day conditions, which is why Clark County Public Health identified Fruit Valley as a priority area of focus for the city of Vancouver, said Lauren Henricksen, a manager in the department.
"Your ZIP code is a better predictor of your health than your genetics," Henricksen said. "There's external community and environmental conditions that shape how healthy you can be. The idea that you can just become a healthy person by making a different choice is just only partly true. Your health is more significantly shaped by the choices that are available to you."
Fruit Valley is mostly zoned for industry with some islands of housing, which is why residents say their neighborhood has the worst air quality in Vancouver. No one knows for sure, though, because the Washington State Department of Health hasn't done widespread indoor air quality testing in Fruit Valley since a groundwater and soil contamination investigation in the early 2000s.
Eduardo Torres, vice president of the Southwest Washington League of United Latin American Citizens Council 47013, said something as simple as adding a grocery store within the neighborhood's boundaries would make a big difference for residents. Fruit Valley only has gas station convenience stores. The closest full-service grocery store is the Safeway at 3707 Main St., almost 2 miles away from the center of the neighborhood, making Fruit Valley a food desert under the U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines.
Torres, who has family living in the neighborhood and works closely with its residents through LULAC, said residents have been advocating for more resources for years. He sees the city's Fourth Plain Forward initiative as an example of the Fruit Valley action plan's potential.
"I'm really happy that we're talking about it," Torres said. "I know it's going to require collaboration, not just from the city, but from investors or people that want to create business."
That vision for business expansion comes with lingering concerns, particularly given the influence of the industry that borders the neighborhood. Hector Hinojosa, who used to live in Fruit Valley, said he's cautiously optimistic about the action plan. He hopes it will lead to redirection of truck traffic.
Three years ago, the city approved a mega-warehouse in Fruit Valley just before its new regulations limiting such development to mostly heavy industrial areas went into effect.
"The farming community is essentially gone in trade for warehouses," Hinojosa said. "This isn't anything new. It's just this kind of benign neglect."
In the past, Fruit Valley residents have fought against projects they believed would cause more pollution.
In 2013, the Port of Vancouver commission gave the green light to a proposal to build the largest oil-handling operation in the Northwest at the port. Five years later, the port voted to end the oil terminal lease after Washington's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council rejected the proposal, citing the potential risk of an oil spill.
"I've seen how (Fruit Valley) can be a great spot for folks to live, but also how quickly an industrial neighbor can hurt residents if they're not careful," Fruit Valley neighborhood leader and Port of Vancouver Commissioner Eric LaBrant said in an email to The Columbian.
While skepticism remains, others see the action plan as a step forward, even if progress may be gradual.
For example, Staci Boehlke, Fruit Valley Elementary School's family-community resource center coordinator, said she feels like the city is genuinely listening and engaging with residents in a meaningful way.
"I feel like there's been lots of people in our court trying to make things happen. But you don't change neighborhoods overnight," Boehlke said. "This is a spot where we can make some real change and it might be the most attention we've had from the city in a while, but it's not the most attention we've had from our community. Our community has always been Fruit Valley forward."
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Editor's note: Lauren Henricksen's name was incorrectly spelled in a previous version of this story.
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 7:08 AM.