Imagine Corvallis Vision 2040
The Imagine Corvallis 2040 project engages our community in robust conversations about preferences for our city’s future. Every five years, thousands of comments are collected through public events, surveys, interviews, and online submissions. Corvallis community members bring a wide array of creative ideas and diverse points of view to these conversations.
In 2017, these conversations generated the Imagine Corvallis 2040 Vision. The Vision helps guide community leaders to take actions that reflect our community’s shared values. The Imagine Corvallis 2040 Vision has six distinct Focus Areas: Engage & Support, Steward & Sustain, Learn & Thrive, Innovate & Prosper, Create & Celebrate, and Plan & Change. Once collected, the comments are analyzed and grouped into these topic areas. City staff then work with local government agencies and nonprofits to identify “Community Initiatives” or programs that embody the priorities of the community.
Focus Areas & Objectives
Corvallis supports and engages a changing population in a welcoming community…
that accommodates all income and cultural groups; advances the well-being of all residents; emphasizes open, transparent, accessible government; plans for stable financing of long-term city needs; and promotes collaborative City/University relationships in all aspects of community life.
Objectives
ES1: Well-Being & Basic Needs
Corvallis advances the well-being of all of its residents, especially those with fewer resources, by addressing basic needs for food, shelter, safety, and health care.
ES2: Community Affordability
Corvallis accommodates all income groups as integral parts of the community and ensures that people who work in Corvallis can afford to live here.
ES3: Open & Transparent Local Government
Corvallis emphasizes open, accessible, and transparent government, fostering meaningful public involvement and volunteerism, an informed and engaged population, and community members who are empowered to participate in governance and decision-making.
ES4: Safe, Secure, & Welcoming Community
Corvallis is a safe, secure, and welcoming community for everyone, promoting respectful relations and collaboration between community members and those providing public safety services.
ES5: Strong, Vital Neighborhoods
Corvallis promotes strong, vital neighborhoods, supporting neighborhood-centered activities and involving neighborhoods in how the community grows and develops.
ES6: Collaborative City/University Relations
Corvallis promotes positive and collaborative City/University relationships in all aspects of community life.
ES7: Core Community Values
Decisions made in Corvallis honor and take into consideration the Corvallis 2040 Vision.
ES8: City Services & Financial Stability
Corvallis balances the community’s desire for services with financial stability and planning for long-term needs and contingencies through a transparent public process.
Corvallis connects health care, education, and human services…
supporting a healthy, educated, accessible community with a high level of well-being; enhanced understanding of cultural differences; and an environment of learning, engagement, and achievement.
Objectives
LT1: Equitable, Accessible Health Care & Education
Corvallis creates new opportunities for learning and growth, accessibility and engagement, and support and inclusion. This results in high-level individual and community well-being. Community members contribute to and benefit from the resources needed to thrive.LT2: Education & Diversity
Corvallis promotes ongoing education, communication, and enhanced understanding of cultural differences, welcoming and empowering people of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and abilities.
LT3: Pathways for Student Achievement
Corvallis promotes student achievement in learning, careers and life, recognizing and supporting the growing diversity of pathways to and definitions of personal and career success.LT4: Opportunities for Teaching & Learning
Corvallis promotes depth and breadth of teaching and learning from early childhood to adulthood through it’s schools, libraries, and other centers of community learning.
LT5: Culture of Learning, Engagement, & Achievement
Corvallis values education, leveraging the presence of Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College to foster a culture of learning, engagement, and achievement.
LT6: Access to Health Lifestyles
Corvallis provides access for all to healthy food, water, and recreational opportunities for healthy and active lifestyle.
LT7: Access to Healthcare Services
Corvallis is home to well-coordinated and affordable system for medical, dental, and mental health care.
LT8: Community Partnership for Human Services
Corvallis ensures access to human service through a strong and collaborative partnership of nonprofit agencies, government, and local organizations to provide emergency and preventative services.
Corvallis cultivates an identity centered on arts, culture, recreation, and celebration…
where the arts and recreation are essential parts of the community’s economy, quality of life, and sense of place. Arts, cultural experiences, and recreational opportunites benefit from exceptional community support, are accessible to all community members, and make the City a regional destination.
Objectives
CC1: Community Support for the Arts & Artisans
Corvallis demonstrates strong community support for arts and culture, as well as for local artisans and creatives.
CC2: Variety of Arts & Entertainment Venues
Corvallis enjoys a wide variety of venues to engage in the arts, from performance centers, museums, and galleries, to affordable community spaces for people to learn, create, and express themselves.
CC3: Accessibility of Arts
Corvallis works to make the learning and experience of art and culture a life-long endeavor accessible to all community members through resources including higher education institutions, schools, community institutions, and arts and cultural organizations.
CC4: Creative Destination
Corvallis is a destination for the Willamette Valley and beyond, attracting artists and creative thinkers, supporting local businesses, and generating significant tourism investment in the community, its artists, and its economy.
CC5: Tourism & Visitor Attractions
Corvallis attracts visitors to sports and cultural events, signature community events, and heritage programs.
CC6: Celebrating Our History & Culture
Corvallis cultivates and celebrates its history and local sense of place through its arts, culture, festivals, neighborhood celebrations, and events.
CC7: Natrual Surroundings
The Corvallis community celebrates its geographical location in the heart of the Willamette Valley and on the banks of the Willametter River. Community members appreciate their natural surroundings, interacting with the river, mountains, and open spaces for recreation while being careful stewards of the environment.
Corvallis is a safe, sustainable, resilient, small city…
that maintains the community’s safety and security, protects its natural environment, addresses a changing climate, and prepares for emergencies with special attention paid to its most vulnerable populations.
Objectives
SS1: Sustainable City
Corvallis is an environmentally sustainable city, with broad community awareness and a climate action plan that addresses the many impacts of climate change.
SS2: Population Changes & Migration
Corvallis addresses growth driven by climate change migrations, while it builds resilience into its plans and policies.
SS3: Community Resiliency
Corvallis plans for unpredictable events, focusing on individual and neighborhood preparedness, as well as emergency response and recovery programs with special attention to the community’s most vulnerable populations.
SS4: Open Spaces, Natural Areas, & Wetlands Protection
Corvallis works to preserve and protect significant tracts of open space, including parks, natural areas, and wetlands within and surrounding the City, maintaining the area’s rural feel, natural vegetation, and environmental character.
SS5: Agricultural Lands & Food Security
Corvallis supports healthy and sustainable agricultural and food security by preserving and protecting farmlands surrounding the City and encouraging small-scale agriculture.
SS6: Renewable Energy
Corvallis derives most of its energy from renewable energy sources to power its public and private buildings, infrastructure, transportation systems, and homes.
SS7: Green & Sustainable University
Corvallis works collaboratively with Oregon State University to plan and implement a green, sustainable campus with a light environmental footprint.
ES8: Community Safety
Corvallis maintains safety and livability for all residents and visitors by providing community-focused, effective and high-quality police, fire, emergency medical services, corrections, and emergency dispatch services that meet or exceed professional standards.
Corvallis has a robust, diversified economy supporting good jobs and a livable community…
with a wide range of small and medium-sized businesses that are environmentally responsible and involved in the community, including innovative new companies serving local and global markets.
Objectives
IP1: Family & Living Wage Jobs
Corvallis has sufficient availability and variety of family and living wage jobs that provide meaningful work and earning opportunities that make housing, health care, and education attainable.
IP2: Nurturing Small-to-Medium Sized Businesses
Corvallis fosters and supports a growing number of small-to-medium sized, locally-owned companies and businesses as its key strength. These organizations are important to the community’s economy and its future economic growth.
IP3: Recruitment of New Companies & Job Creation
Corvallis targets and supports responsible new companies, including green manufacturing and value-added businesses, diversifying the community’s economic base and creating new employment opportunities.
IT4: Innovative Tech Businesses & Start-Ups
Corvallis and Oregon State University work closely togerther to incubate innovative technology and other start-up companies and the local services that support them.
IT5: Vibrant Downtown with Employment, Retail, & Housing
Corvallis supports its economy and local businesses with a vibrant downtown that combines employment, professional services, retail, housing, and entertainment to form an active, business-friendly district.
IT6: Balanced Economic Growth with Livability
Corvallis carefully balances economic growth and opportunity with continued community livability, sustainability, and protection of the natural environment.
IT7: Global Economic Impacts & Local Benefits
Corvallis has significant connections with and positive impacts on the global economy, attracting industry, talent, and services and connecting them with the scholarship, research, and cultural diversity that Oregon State University brings to the community.
Corvallis is a compact, well-planned, livable city…
with a vibrant downtown and commercial centers that blend employment, retail and housing, stable, healthy neighborhoods, a diverse mix of affordable housing, and a network of parks and green spaces, all connected by transit, biking, and walking.
Objectives
PC1: Mixed Use Development
Corvallis plans and implements high-density, mixed-use development in targeted areas of the City, blending residential, commercial, and retail uses, and dining and entertainment options, focused on the downtown area and major commercial centers.
PC2: Integrated Parks, Green Spaces, & Public Places
Corvallis integrates parks and public spaces throughout the City, creating and maintaining new parks in underserved areas of the community and promoting new green spaces in higher-density development and redevelopment areas.
PC3: Diverse & Affordable Housing
Corvallis fosters the development of housing that is affordable at all stages of life, featuring a range of housing types, sizes, costs, and configurations throughout the City.
PC4: Stable, Healthy Neighborhoods
Corvallis honors its neighborhood character, working to preserve and protect the unique identity and characteristics of existing neighborhoods. New residential development incorporates elements that foster neighborhood qualities.
PC5: Alternative Transportation & Public Transit
Corvallis has a high quality and heavily-utilized regional public transit system, and supports alternative forms of transportation including bicycle and pedestrian options.
PC6: Coordinated City & University Planning
Corvallis works closely with Oregon State University to improve community livability, minimize its impacts on neighborhoods, mitigate parking and traffic issues, and improve collaboration between the City and University.
PC7: Well-Planned & Maintained Infrastructure
Corvallis supports a reliable, safe, and connected community through well-planned, maintained, and sustainable infrastructure, including streets and bridges, pedestrian and bicycle networks, water systems, information technology, energy systems, and public buildings.