The Communications Department at Oregon State University has been working overtime pumping out press releases touting the prominence of the venerable institution. Then there was the recent "State of the University Address", by OSU President Ed Ray. By the numbers, $2.06 Billion dollars with a "B", Oregon State University is a major benefactor to the Oregon Economy. Just yesterday it was reported that each student enrolled at Oregon State supports the local Corvallis economy to the tune of $9,000 plus dollars per year. Kudos must go to the Public Relations Department at Oregon State. Ed Ray and the staff at OSU are controlling the narrative regarding the inexorable march to 35,000 students. Yes, There is the Memorandum of Understanding between OSU and the City of Corvallis. Yes, there is a strong level of opposition to the growth at OSU. Yes, there will be more meetings & more press releases tipping the scales in favor of what is essentially a speeding train, Oregon State, heading down the track with no way to stop it. One can only hope there is no train wreck! At present student housing construction is underway at Seventh Street and Western Blvd, and at Tyler & 29th Street. Then there is the soon to be reality of more student housing being built on the site of the old Corvallis Hospital on Harrison. Lost to some perhaps, but a very real matter of concern, is the unraveling of the future of Corvallis. Young families are no longer able to find affordable housing in Corvallis. The Corvallis School District 509J is 1,000 fewer students than a decade ago. Neighborhoods that were once mostly owner owned and owner occupied are becoming student housing owned in many cases by out of town landlords. Ironic perhaps, Oregon State President Ed Ray, during his State of the University Address, lamented the fact that Oregon State employees were commuting from Albany & Lebanon, Oregon due to their inability to find affordable housing in Corvallis. The Corvallis School system is "leaking oil" so to speak. Finding $4 million dollars to close the current budget gap is not an enviable task for first year School Superintendent Erin Prince. In addition the Student achievement gap is going in the wrong direction. Ask any Realtor what brings buyers to a community. The answer is first and foremost "Great Schools". Secondly it is affordable housing. Making a difficult situation more distressing, there is a real possibility that more student housing will be built on the Witham Oaks property west of the main campus on Harrison near 53rd street. The project is moving forward by Campus Crest Developers from Charlotte, North Carolina. Campus Crest Developers has a strong history in building student housing nationally and is financially well positioned to weather any arguments from groups like Friends of Witham Oaks. If the Friends of Witham Oaks has any chance of success in preventing this project, "The Grove", from becoming a reality it will take a better effort than has been exerted to date. This newspaper supports the Friends of Witham Oaks attempt to prevent this from happening. However, being pragmatic it is probably unrealistic to think that The Corvallis City Council will have the "steeliness" to say "NO" to Campus Crest Developers. Point of information, Oregon State President Ed Ray went on the record at a Corvallis Chamber of Commerce breakfast last year telling the audience that OSU would not build any more Student Housing on Campus until the City of Corvallis & Benton County officials got their act together on growth. The most important and relevant stakeholders in our community, the people, need to have one voice when dealing with professionals like Campus Crest Developers. "Push back" is a term that is commonly used to mean that a positive more aggressive action demonstrating dissatisfaction is occurring. This is the type of action that may just achieve a positive outcome for the citizens of Corvallis. Having attended numerous community meetings, the disparate and unfocused well meaning local constituencies need one voice that will have weight with Corvallis City Council, Mayor Manning, City Manager Patterson and OSU President Ed Ray. It is still possible to reshape the narrative that has to this point been controlled by Oregon State. The Commission that was recently announced by Mayor Manning and President Ray, a result of the Memorandum of Understanding, is tasked to deal with parking, noise, community livability, issues that are important. The overarching concern I have is will a million dollars and probably a million words be enough to shape the narrative of what Corvallis will look like in 2020? Will Corvallis be a community of retirees and college students and little else?
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