Downtown Vitality
The downtown district is the heart of Corvallis — an engaging, diverse neighborhood full of bustling businesses, offices, hotels, and residences, with more than 100 years of history etched into the streets and sidewalks.
We're working to create a new vitality strategy for downtown Corvallis, and you have a role to play in this endeavor. Downtowns aren't created overnight. They're nurtured over decades by generations of civic stewards. It's our turn to guide the downtown district into the next chapter.
Explore this page to learn how to get involved and read up on how we got here.
What's New
- Downtown Priorities Questionnaire - The Downtown Vitality Strategy Task Force is seeking your feedback on your recent experiences downtown. In this short questionnaire, you'll also have an opportunity to review and rank a list of 20 possible priority actions for improving downtown. The questionnaire should take about 5 minutes to complete.
- Share Your Input - The Task Force has a dedicated public input form to gather feedback about downtown — your questions, bright ideas, and things to keep in mind.
Community Engagement
The Task Force has developed a four-phase plan for engaging the Corvallis community around these important downtown discussions.
- Phase 1: Inform Community and Stakeholders - Task Force Executive Committee and three subcommittees in August will identify stakeholders, stakeholder groups and technical experts involved in, impacted by and interested in Corvallis’ downtown.
- Phase 2: Consult/Involve/Collaborate with Community and Stakeholders - Following its engagement and communications strategies, the Task Force will work to gather preliminary insights from community members, downtown stakeholders, and technical experts.
- Phase 3: Inform and Consult/Involve/Collaborate with Community and Stakeholders - The Task Force Executive Committee will follow its outreach and communications strategies to broadly inform and engage with stakeholders, stakeholder groups, technical experts and the general Corvallis community to share preliminary information and gather input from community members.
- Phase 4: Inform and Consult/Involve/Collaborate with Community and Stakeholders - The Task Force will gather input and seek to build consensus of support from community members regarding vision, goals, and outcomes for downtown Corvallis, and what strategies and tactics will be recommended as now, next, or later priorities.
How We Got Here
In 2025, the City Council initiated a project to examine economic vitality, infrastructure, and livability issues in downtown Corvallis.
A volunteer task force was created to lead public outreach around these important topics. The goal of the task force is to gather community feedback and make recommendations to the City Council concerning the development of a new Downtown Vitality Strategy for Corvallis. The Task Force was also charged with examining the impact and benefits of the current proposal to redevelop the City Hall block at 5th & Madison to create a new Civic Campus and Police Station.
The task force is made up of community members from throughout Corvallis, including the newly formed Downtown Corvallis Organization, as well as property owners and business managers, representatives from local governments and partner agencies, and elected officials (including City Councilors).
More Resources
The work of the task force builds on numerous city initiatives and strategic planning efforts involving downtown. You can explore those resources at the links below.
