The Port of Astoria has received funding from Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, for work on a boatyard master plan and for a wetlands mitigation bank study.

In July, the Port of Astoria Commission voted to hire Maul Foster & Alongi to create a master plan for the expansion of the boatyard on Pier 3 in Uniontown. The master plan has a project cost of about $100,000, but through grant funding — $60,000 from Business Oregon and $25,000 from Northwest Oregon Works — the Port will only pay $15,000 from its budget.

The commission approved grant agreements during a meeting on Tuesday. Matt McGrath, the Port’s deputy director, explained that the agreements will allow the Port to receive reimbursements for its work with Maul Foster.

“(Maul Foster) will give us a multiphased plan that will, over a certain amount of years, allow us to develop the boatyard in such a way that we’ll be able to attract more business and really stabilize the work that we can do out at the boatyard,” McGrath said in July.

Grant funding in the amount of $90,000 from Business Oregon will also allow the Port to conduct a study to look at potential wetlands restoration to mitigate the impacts of building on Pier 2 west. The study will also identify properties the Port owns on the Skipanon River that could be used for wetlands mitigation.

“This is one of the things that Business Oregon actually brought to us,” McGrath said. “(They) said, ‘Hey, we are able to help fund this through a technical assistance grant to find you some mitigation so that you can continue development at the industrial park and work on getting mitigation for the Pier 2 west project.’”

Pier 2, which is home to Da Yang Seafood and Bornstein Seafoods, has become the Port’s top priority in recent years as a failing seawall and rotting decks increasingly threaten the entire structure.

The Port has struggled to obtain grant funding after financial challenges at the agency in the past decade, but has taken steps in recent months to make applications more competitive. In May, the agency opted to integrate planning of three key waterfront projects, including the Pier 2 rehabilitation and the expansion of the boatyard, in a strategy to secure more funding.