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A tugboat maneuvers through waiting freighters on the Columbia River near the Port of Vancouver in Vancouver, Wash. (Don Ryan/AP)

The Port of Vancouver will hold a public workshop after its regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 14 to draft a vision statement detailing the future of the port.

The port’s current vision statement is, “A premier port that is globally recognized and well-capitalized with state-of-the-industry facilities, infrastructure and service providing accountable economic benefit.”

Earlier this month, commissioners expressed a desire to update the language if the port achieved its existing goal. Since the port drafted its existing statement, several major developments have increased the scope of its infrastructure and capacity — a larger staff, a new CEO, completion of the West Vancouver Freight Access project, and work on the Terminal 1 property, among other changes.

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Commissioners also are hoping to turn the focus of the vision statement from the port to the surrounding community at large, commission President Eric LaBrant said.

Heads up! We will hold a public workshop immediately after our meeting on Aug. 14 to present a comprehensive draft strategic plan and share vision statement language with the commission: — Port of Vancouver USA (@portvanusa)

“There’s a type of vision statement that focuses more on, what will the community look like if we’re successful,” LaBrant said Aug. 10. “There’s a lot of different ways to define that, and it’s probably not a bad idea to keep those various definitions in mind. The community could mean the Clark County business community, it could mean the folks who live in the port district, it could mean Clark County as a whole or the whole region.”

It also feels as though the port already has achieved its current vision, LaBrant said. It’s time to turn to the bigger picture.

“The existing vision statement really is more focused on the port, and it does seem like we’ve sort of reached those,” he said.

The Port of Vancouver also is in the midst of updating its strategic plan, a yearlong effort among commissioners, staff, stakeholders and community partners to revisit a document that hadn’t been changed in nearly 10 years. It released a draft of the new strategic plan last week, detailing specific goals in six categories: community, economic development, environmental, financial, organizational and marine and industrial business.

While the strategic plan deals in details, the vision statement will take a wider view.

“The recurring theme at the last workshop when we were discussing it was around a livable community — what does that entail? It’s making sure we have jobs for people who are wanting to support themselves. It also means having clean air and clean water,” LaBrant said. “We really can’t fail at either one of those.”

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