Philomath officials kicked off a comprehensive community visioning process Thursday night at the Philomath Scout Lodge and called on residents and organizations to help create a 25-year plan for the city’s future growth and development.
The Philomath Community Vision 2050 project aims to engage citizens, groups and stakeholders in defining what makes Philomath special and how to preserve those qualities while planning for future growth.
Mayor Christopher McMorran, now in his second year leading the city, said he feels an obligation to pay forward the planning work done by previous leaders.
“I was lucky that when I came into office on the council and as mayor — there were some big projects that were in progress that other folks before me really had the ball rolling on and I got to see them come to fruition,” McMorran said. “So I feel an obligation to pay that forward and to start the process for the next generation and the next set of leaders that come after us.”
McMorran emphasized that the effort should produce more than just a planning document.
“I hope we leave this with a more connected community,” he said. “I hope we feel like all of the different organizations know each other a little better and are ready to work together and we’re not just these separate islands when we’re really rowing the boat in the same direction.”
City Manager Chris Workman said part of the planning process will focus on identifying and emphasizing Philomath’s unique qualities.
“I think what’s unique about Philomath is awesome, it’s incredible,” Workman said. “Our timber heritage, our volunteer heritage, our progressive nature to push the envelope and push for new development and new restaurants and new businesses in the downtown area. That’s all the really, really great stuff about Philomath.”
The key, Workman said, is ensuring future growth builds on those strengths rather than undermining them.
“We don’t want to combat that with how we want to grow in the future,” he said. “We want to harness that and just ride that all the way through and just see how we can best utilize our past to grow into our future.”
The community has seen similar visioning efforts in the past, most notably Project Philomath 2000. Back in the 1980s, an independent citizens group organized with ideas of strengthening the city’s identity, helping businesses flourish and beautifying the community. Throwing support behind the construction of a library and contributing to the development of the new Marys River Park are just two examples of the group’s impact.
A subsequent effort called Philomath 2010 was more city-driven but never gained significant traction.
“About three or four years ago, I started feeling like the time was right that we needed to start working with all of our community organizations to put more of a long-term plan together again, so that was really the start of it,” Workman said. “Mayor McMorran came on board and he and I had some very early-on conversations and both of us were right in line with the need that both of us saw for the community to really come together and have a long-term visioning process.”
The project is funded primarily by a $75,000 grant from the Ford Family Foundation and was identified as a priority in the city’s strategic plan. While the city launched the initiative, McMorran stressed it’s meant to be a true community effort, not just a city project.
The city has hired SSW Consulting to lead the visioning effort. Representatives from the consulting firm attended Thursday night’s event.
Sharon Thornberry, executive director of Philomath Community Services, and Sarah Lench, executive director of Maxtivity, both spoke in support of the visioning process and encouraged community participation.
City officials have made concerted efforts to reach beyond the usual participants in civic processes. Postcards were sent to every household inviting residents to this month’s state of the city talks by the mayor and to Thursday’s celebration. McMorran and Workman also reached out directly to service clubs, church congregations and other community groups.
McMorran said the response has been encouraging, with even seniors who won’t be around in 2050 expressing their desire to contribute to shaping the town’s future.
“We need to have a deliverable at the end of this but then we also need to have an engaged, connected community that is motivated on enacting that plan,” McMorran said.
Both leaders emphasized their commitment to keeping the results of the visioning effort accessible and relevant rather than filed away and forgotten.
“We’re really hoping that this is an opportunity where individual visions can be shared with the wider community and we can find ways of where maybe there’s some overlap,” Workman said. “This really is coming into it with very open eyes and open minds about what partnerships could evolve and what could happen.”