In anticipation of an August completion date, the city of Newberg received an update on their Community Visioning process Monday ahead of an April 16 town hall on the matter.
The vision is a plan to chart the next 20 years of Newberg’s future and was a goal of the City Council. The city went to the University of Oregon for help and were provided a participant from the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments Program to serve as a visioning coordinator. That coordinator, Bayo Ware, drafted a community profile for the city’s Community Visioning Citizens Advisory Committee.
Community Development Director Doug Rux said several topic categories have been identified through stakeholder interviews and from a first round of community survey work. These include: community engagement, community identity, community leadership, cultural assets, economic development and livability and development.
These vision topics were used to create the online survey residents participated in over the winter, and lead to the first community forum that was held in February. Rux said that more than 60 people participated in that forum.
In March, Rux said a volunteer group called the Community Corps began drafting a vision, goals and strategies based on the 900 survey results the city received.
Public events should last through June. The following step is an action plan, which is gathering all the data and putting it into a plan to finalize the vision. There will also be community events throughout the year to serve as opportunities for outreach, as well as committee meetings.
Newberg’s population is estimated to grow 56 percent by 2040, which would bring it to roughly 36,700 residents. At that number the city is projected to grow at a faster rate than both Yamhill County and the state.
The committee has previously stated a visioning project “is a way for the community to participate in planning Newberg’s future.” The community is rapidly growing, “and if we don’t plan for the future, then it will become something that no one wants.” It states the benefit of the plan is it creates a road map to a preferred future and at the end of the project there will be a completed document outlining specific goals providing that road map.
The Community Corps is working on the community vision statement. Rux said the group will appear before the council on April 16 at a town hall event to outline the visions for each topic area, and that there will be a second round of survey work to come.
“We’ll work with the community to get feedback to see if they are on topic,” he said.
The schedule to have the vision completed by August remains on track, Rux said, adding that Ware is making sure all goals and benchmarks are met.
According to the time line in place, following the April 16 town hall at the Newberg camps of Portland Community College at 135 Werth Blvd., where the vision draft will be presented, the next event will be a second community workshop on May 14. Following that, there will be a second public presentation town hall June 30, followed by a community vision workshop July 10. The vision is expected to be completed by August.
The project is being funded through the Planning Budget in the General Fund, and $23,500 has been budgeted for the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) participant through Professional Services. The program provides a small match toward the overall costs. Money has also been budgeted for office equipment and costs for community meetings, workshops and events.
Residents with questions or feedback, may email Ware at bayoan.ware@newbergoregon.org.
Originally published in The Newberg Graphic