Land Use Questionnaire: At a work session on July 20 the Corvallis City Council will go over the results of a Land Use Questionnaire that was put out to community members in 2022.
“The Community Land Use Questionnaire is a public engagement tool that falls into the “Consult” Public Participation goal. It is designed to be general so that community members can provide the feedback they would like to provide without many restrictions,” said Paul Bilotta, Community Development Director for the City of Corvallis. “Its purpose is similar to other general engagement processes like having an open house, public hearing, or focus group discussion. The questionnaire includes a mixture of qualitative and quantitative responses.”
Some of the responses the city received included the importance of the City’s parks and trail system for quality of life, the lack of redevelopment of the Auction Yard/New Holland site, ensuring better connectivity for bicycles and pedestrians, and lastly student housing.
Compared with the 2017 Survey: The city conducted a previous study in 2017 and compared the results to the previous one with the results in 2022. Between the two, houselessness seems to be a more frequently cited concern in 2022 than it was in 2017, according to Bilotta.
“Support has increased for the siting of additional shelters for the City’s unhoused community members throughout most planning areas in the questionnaire,” said Bilotta.
The 2022 questionnaire results and the archive of the 2017 questionnaire results can be found at: https://www.corvallisoregon.gov/cd/page/corvallis-community-conversations-land-use-questionnaire
Mary’s Watershed: The Benton County Board of Commissioners will look at a funding request for continued work on Mary’s Watershed at the July 18 commission meeting.
The Marys River Watershed Council is requesting $10,550 to provide funding to continue its work alongside partners in Benton County in developing a Trout Friendly Landscapes green infrastructure program across Benton County’s streams and their headwaters.
The Mary’s River watershed starts on the upper slopes of Mary’s Peak, in western Benton County.
“This program, which would improve water quality by implementing green stormwater infrastructure on private lands such as commercial, industrial, apartment complexes, church and school sites and so on, would help to create vibrant, livable communities with high quality environment that keep health in all actions into account through improved water quality, reduced flood impacts and minimized pollutants that enter waterways and often place vulnerable populations at disproportionate risk to environmental health hazards (equity for everyone),” said Chief Financial Officer Rick Crager. “This program would help build community resilience by decreasing risk of flooding through taking a system-wide approach.”
Commissioners will look at the funding request at Tuesday’s meeting.
By Jennifer Warner
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