Port of Camas-Washougal seeks public input on increase to fees, rental rates

The Port of Camas-Washougal is seeking community input on its annual increases to user fees and rental rates at Grove Field and Parker’s Landing Marina.

Port Commissioner Larry Keister said port leaders need to hear regularly from airport and marina tenants.

“If we had a committee, we would talk to them all the time. They’ll know who we are, and we will know who they are. We will share our ideas with them and then get their feedback,” Keister said. “The more information that I have, the better decisions I can make. This will give us that input that we need.”

The port commissioners agreed during their June 4 meeting that they mostly approved of the plan to form citizen advisory committees.

“I think that this, as being part of a larger effort to really look at all of our asset management, is really moving in the right direction — having even stronger ideas, policies and procedures, and plans in place to look at all of our assets,” Commissioner Cassi Marshall said, adding that she believes the committees will be “a good way to go to get users involved so they understand the … increase every year.”

The port regularly increases its user fees and rates to keep up with inflationary costs.

Port CEO Trang Lam said having more community input ahead of those rate increases may alleviate some users’ frustration with the rate increases.

“There’s always going to be complaints,” Trang said, “but this will give them a little bit more understanding, a little bit more empathy.”

Commissioner John Spencer expressed mixed feelings about the plan.

“As far as going to the advisory committees, I think that is fabulous,” Spencer said during the commission’s June 4 meeting. “But I don’t want to abdicate my responsibility to set the 30,000-foot policy, and the one that (the port does) a great job of putting in front of our faces is the rates.”

Lam said community members wouldn’t be making any decisions for the port commissioners but would, rather, make recommendations.

“We would bring them (slowly) into the conversation,” Lam said. “(We’re taking) baby steps.”

Lam added that the committee members could help port commissioners with their annual rate and fee adjustments based on the consumer price index.

“This is a way for us to handle those challenges in a public forum and have people sit around the table and really discuss it,” Lam said. “At the end of the day, they won’t decide anything, but they’ll make a good recommendation to the commission and to us that has varying perspectives.”

The port is not proposing any rate changes for its marina and airport users in 2026.

“The reason is that we intend to form advisory groups for both the marina and the airport at the end of this year, and we’ll have them meet various times between January and May of next year to make a determination for the 2027 rates,” Krista Cagle, the port’s finance director, said during the June 4 commission meeting.

The port currently charges airport hangar users a monthly fee ranging from $280.25 to $523.25. It charges marina users monthly rental rates between $114.50 and $374.50.

“For the most part, (our Grove Field rates are) close to other local airports,” Cagle said, “and we are at market rate for most of the marina slips.”

Both the airport and the marina are at 100 percent occupancy. There are 40 individuals on a waitlist for a marina slip, a decrease from 82 at the same time last year, and 59 individuals on a waitlist for an airport hangar, an increase from 54 at the same time last year and 40 in 2023.

The port increased its rates for marina slips and airport hangars by 6 percent in 2025. On average, it’s increased its airport rate by 4.7 percent and marina rate by 3.90 percent since 2016, slightly higher than the average consumer price index of 3.7 percent.

Lam said the port’s rate increases tend to be close to the consumer price index number, or about 3 percent, so foregoing a rate increase in 2026 is doable.

“Our rate increases aren’t that much, so I think we can go for a year without it,” Lam said.

Cagle said it will likely take the port about 17 years to fully recover its cost of upgrading facilities at Parker’s Landing Marina and nearly 40 years to recoup the costs of capital improvements the port has made at Grove Field.

The port commission will vote on the rate proposal at a future meeting.

Lam said the port plans to form the citizen advisory committees this winter through an application process. People who are interested in being considered for the committees should visit the port’s website at portcw.com/contact-us, click the “send us an email” link, select “Mackenzey Thomason” as the email recipient and type “Advisory Committees” in the email subject line.