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PORTLAND, OREGON - JAN. 14, 2014-- Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish outside City Hall. Fish is in charge of the Portland Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services.

(Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

The city of Portland owns about 16 acres of prime waterfront real estate that it wants to put on the market.

On Wednesday, the Portland City Council considered designating land owned by the Bureau of Environmental Services as surplus, enabling its sale.

The land, on the western banks of the Willamette River, just north of the Fremont Bridge, has a real market value of $7.9 million.

The city's sewer bureau acquired the property in 2004 as a staging area for its Big Pipe project.

The city also wants to sell a nearby property of about a half acre, also owned by the sewer bureau, which at one point was considered as a potential location for the Right 2 Dream Too homeless camp, as Willamette Week pointed out last week. It has a real market value of about $789,000.

But perhaps more interesting is the future of the 16-acre waterfront land, at 2400 N.W. Front Ave.

It's currently zoned for industrial uses. But the waterfront parcels to the south allow residential units, and a condo and apartment boom has followed.

The city is currently updating it comprehensive land-use plan. A draft plan released last month did not include any proposed changes, but the City Council isn't expected to sign off until next year.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz said Wednesday she thought the property would remain zoned for industrial use.

The proposed sale would be the first under new policies developed by Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the sewer and water bureaus, for property disposition. The new policy follows outcry over a water bureau property sold to developers for new housing.

Money from from the Front Avenue sale would go into the sewer construction fund.

The City Council will vote to authorize the surplus property designation Aug. 27.

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Portland Tribune: Old Town revival plan banks on housing

-- Brad Schmidt