Work is on-going at strengthening ties between OSU and the Corvallis community.

Approximately 30 community members have agreed to serve on one of three initial work groups formed to address issues related to traffic and parking, neighborhood planning and neighborhood livability as part of a three-year collaboration effort involving the City of Corvallis and Oregon State University.

The collaboration is designed to recommend and implement policies, programs and strategies to maintain high standards of livability in Corvallis as OSU continues to grow and develop.  A 16-member Steering Committee, co-chaired by Mayor Julie Manning and OSU President Ed Ray, was formed in December to oversee the collaboration.  The work groups will formulate many of the recommendations to be considered by the Steering Committee and, ultimately the City Council and OSU leadership.

Each work group is chaired by a member of the Steering Committee.  Work group members are:

• Parking/Traffic (Steve Clark, Chair):
  

Gary Angelo
Courtney Cloyd
Jerry Duerksen
Rainier Farmer
David Hurwitz
Stan Nudelman
Matthew Palm
Dawn Thomason
Brandon Trelstad

• Neighborhood Planning (Patricia Daniels, Chair):
  

John Corden
Betty Griffiths
Frank Hann
Eric Hansen
Tony Howell
Lyn Larson
Mike Middleton
Jim Moorefield
Michael Pope

• Neighborhood Livability (Dan Schwab, Chair):
  

Tammy Barnhouse
Charlyn Ellis
Judy Gibson
Karen Levy Keon
Phil Histand
Victoria Nguyen
Jim Patterson
Robert Reff
Tyler West

Work group members include residents of neighborhoods adjacent to campus, OSU students, faculty and staff, former Corvallis city council and planning commission members, local property owners and rental housing owners and managers, and members of city advisory boards and commissions.

A two-part orientation for all work group members will be held in March and early April.  In addition, the work groups will host general public meetings in April to share information and gather feedback relative to their efforts in each of the three topic areas.

Project Manager Eric Adams has been hired to help coordinate the collaboration in conjunction with city and university staff.  In addition, Group McKenzie, a traffic engineering firm, has been engaged to conduct a traffic and parking study of the area.  As part of an inter-governmental agreement completed in January, OSU and the city will equally share the related costs of the project, estimated to be $300,000 over the three-year period.

A project website is being developed to provide ongoing updates and meeting information.  It will be accessible from both the city’s and OSU’s website.