The economic development arm of the Coquille Indian Tribe has scheduled a public meeting to show its concept plan for redeveloping the longtime site of the Weyerhaeuser lumber mill on the North Bend waterfront. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 17 at The Mill Casino-Hotel, in the Salmon Room.

At the forum, members of the Coquille Economic Development Corporation will review and evaluate the suggestions of Bay Area residents for using the old Weyerhaeuser site, where the company opened its mill in 1950 but largely closed down operations by 1989. The focus of the meeting will then turn to CEDCO's concept for the 50-acre parcel and which activities will be appropriate there.

The industrial site has been vacant since 1999, when Weyerhaeuser closed a wood-chip terminal by the Coos Bay waterway, its last operation there. The logging firm sold the property to the Coquille tribe in March 2004.

CEDCO began gathering public comments about how to develop the mill site at a November forum, in which executives said the redevelopment will pass through four phases - site assessment, concept planning, the setting of design standards and implementation. Concept planning is expected to begin in June.

Many of the attendees at the tribe's November session called on CEDCO to remake the property into a hub for storefronts, restaurants, bay overlooks and boat moorage - a complete break with the site's industrial past.