(VANCOUVER, WA.) — The Vancouver city council approved a $5,482,629.11 construction contract to Jeffries Construction LLC for the SE McGillivray Boulevard Safety and Mobility project, despite concerns over a lack of public engagement.
The Vancouver City Council meeting on August 17th, 2026, was marked by the contentious approval of a $5.4 million contract for the SE McGillivray Boulevard Safety and Mobility Project.
Photo Credit: CVTV
Many residents testified before the council, citing concerns about diminished property values, increased traffic congestion, reduced accessibility for vulnerable populations, and questionable public engagement processes (where over 1,000 negative comments were allegedly sidelined).
Enid Cox opposed the changing of McGillivray Boulevard, stating it will negatively impact property values, increase maintenance costs for reduced lanes, make backing out of driveways nearly impossible due to continuous traffic, and eliminate the parking lane used by many residents for walking and recreation.
“Many of the residents use the parking lane for walking recreational purposes, or to walk their dog, or to walk to the store or the bus stop. Is it fair to take away that form of recreation for your residents, your constituents?” Cox said. “Please respect the needs and desires of your constituents. 6,500 were concerned enough about our streets to sign a petition that the county refused to recognize.”
Mark Christopher opposed the McGillivray changes, emphasizing a lack of genuine public involvement. He states that the city archived a first survey with over 1,000 comments (11 to 1 against the project) and instead based decisions on a second board with only 106 participants.
“This means that the planners knowingly set aside the input of more than a thousand people. Later meetings with 50 of the 106 participants, seven meetings with as few as one participant, and an average of seven attendees cannot outweigh a thousand-plus archived comments, hundreds more online and in-person comments, and the voices of the residents who were never invited at all. This is not representative outreach,” Christopher said.
Christopher asserted that previous requests from the City Council and planning department to improve outreach to McGillivray neighbors were ignored by planners. He requested a pause on the project until all neighborhoods' voices are heard.
“We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking for the city to follow its own rules, honor its commitments, and pause the project until all neighborhoods have a voice that is heard by the city,” Christopher concluded.
Lori Arndt, a resident of East Vancouver, expressed frustration over the council voting to award a $5 million+ contract to redesign a road to a single vehicle lane, questioning the financial priorities given the city's homelessness crisis, budget deficit, and housing needs.
“There's so many more relevant uses for $5 million in a city with that, has homelessness crisis, a budget deficit, growing population and housing needs, annexation and budget impacts due to that. Have you really prioritized your needs correctly? Is this really the place we need to go?” Arndt said.
Jim Williamson acknowledged the council's difficult job but urged them to push back against planning commission studies that propose expensive projects like the $5 million McGillivray redesign, whose costs were not clearly communicated.
“I guess I just urge you to encourage your permanent, well-paid staff with great jobs to do a better job of communicating with the public,” Williamson said.
Photo Credit: CVTV
Following public testimony, Public Works Transportation Division Manager Ryan Lopossa outlined the efforts that were taken for community outreach for this project. Lopossa acknowledged that the number of residents who responded to their outreach was small given the number of people living in the area. He also said that kind of turnout was not unusual.
“I've been doing this work for a long, long time, and public involvement can be some of the most challenging work in terms of getting folks to come out and see what it is you want to talk about. But the volume of different ways we went out and talked to folks, this is some of the most creative work, second only to Main Street, of course, that we've done for any of our projects in a long time,” Lopossa said.
Ultimately, the council voted to proceed with the project despite public concern.
If you would like to comment on this report, please email me at rory.h@lead4earth.org.
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