No on 02-88

You may be able to vote on 02-88 if you are a currently registered voter in Oregon

The voter registration rolls for the Nov. 4, 2014 election closed Oct. 14, 2014.  However, if you are registered to vote anywhere else in Oregon, and you have voted in the last five years and you now live in Corvallis, you may be able to change your registration address right up until 8PM on Election Day Nov 4 and vote on Measure 02-88.

For information on whether you are eligible to change your registration address and vote on Measure 02-88, you can contact:

     Benton County Elections & Passport Office
     Benton County Courthouse
     120 NW 4th St., Room 13  (in the basement)
     Corvallis,  OR
     541-766-6756

They may refer you to the Oregon Secretary of State's website, or you can go there yourself to change your registration address:

     Update Voter Registration Information (Explanation)
     MyVote (Update here)

Elections officials frequently advise that you should go to the Benton County Courthouse Elections Office to change your registration address, rather than doing it online. If you go to the Elections Office to change your address,  you likely can cast your ballot there at the same time.

Your voted ballot must be received at the Election Office, not just postmarked, by 8PM Nov. 4 to be counted.  If you received your ballot in the mail, you can drop off your voted ballot at the Elections Office until 8PM Nov. 4.

Measure 02-88 Explained

If Measure 02-88 passes, Ordinance 2014-05 will go into effect.  The ordinance will establish seven parking districts in the red-shaded area encompassing about 15% of the Corvallis business and residential core outlined in blue.  (You can review the official City map for more detail.)  By comparison OSU encompasses about 21% of the Corvallis business and residential core.

The primary rules for parking districts in Ordinance 2014-05 are:

1. Residents and businesses can buy a limited number of parking permits.
2. A resident permit is issued for a specific vehicle and cannot be used on another vehicle.
3. A parking permit can only used in the district in which the resident or business is located. 
4. Only a resident with a permit will be allowed to purchase one visitor permit.
5. Residents on a few streets that do not allow 2 hour parking can purchase two visitor permits.
6. A resident who doesn't own a car cannot buy a resident or a visitor permit.
7. Other visitors are subject to the same parking rules as any other person without a permit.
8. From 8AM to 5PM, non-permit-holders can only park for 2 hours once per day in a district.
9. Non-permit-holders can park once each day in each district.
10. In some districts there are designated streets on which only permit holders can park.

The ordinance does not limit the number of permits that can be sold to the number of parking spaces in the district.

The ordinance provides (Sec. 6.15.030, p.2) that parking districts may be expanded beyond the area initially specified in the ordinance as shown on the official City map.  Until Sept. 1, 2017 proposed districts in the Corvallis Collaboration Project study area, about 35% of the Corvallis business and economic core, will be granted an exemption to the rules governing expansion.  City Council has not provided specific information about how soon or under what rules they will honor requests to expand parking districts in the exempted areas.

Contrary to claims made in the Voter's Pamphlet, the ordinance does NOT require the City Council to review operations of the parking district system after one year.


This map and explanation were created with information and the two maps provided by the city of Corvallis along with the text of the ordinance to which the post links. We have done our best to insure accuracy. Unfortunately, many of the maps previously circulated by the city have been found to not match the ordinance language.  This has caused confusion for neighbors attempting to determine where their properties fall into the parking scheme.  While we believe our map to be accurate, the boundary description in the ordinance is very complicated and therefore errors could possibly exist in our mapping. It is not our intention to mislead anyone.

Argument Against Measure 02-88

VOTE "NO" ON MEASURE 02-88

Citizens of Corvallis volunteered hundreds of hours and contributed thousands of dollars to protect our neighbors from this costly, overly bureaucratic, flawed parking scheme -- a parking scheme contrived by a sliver of the community. We believed the citizens should have an opportunity to vote on this ordinance, as it would permanently change the face of this community.

Measure 02-88 IS FLAWED:

Makes it complicated and expensive for contractors to perform work on our homes

This ordinance has no allowance for contractors nor home health care workers to purchase a permit for these districts. This will add to the expense of getting work done for the people living in these districts and make it challenging for our older citizens to receive the services they need to stay in their homes.

Discriminates against bicycle commuters

Bicycle only commuters will not be allowed to purchase a guest pass for their family or friends. Under the ordinance, you must first have a resident pass in order to purchase a guest pass. To get a resident pass you must show vehicle registration. We should not be putting up impediments against people choosing to commute by bike.

Causes more problems

Vehicles will be pushed a few blocks further out and cause problems for neighborhoods that have not had issues before.

Divides the campus from the rest of the community

OSU is an asset to this community. The library and the other resources on campus would become less accessible to the community.

The city would regulate the number of visitors we can have to our homes

Most district residents would be limited to purchasing one guest permit. The city should not be involved in restricting our ability to freely associate.

"I would hope that the City Council would consider that doing nothing might be better than doing this," former city manager Jim Patterson, Corvallis Gazette-Times, 2/4/2014

Help get the word out

 We know it's old school, but just in case you want to print up and share some of our cards with the QR code for this blog with others, we've posted a 10-up PDF page.  Please do download, copy, cut-em up, and pass around.  Thanks.

The City may expand parking districts if "Yes" wins

Some may have heard claims that the Mayor and City Council plans to expand the parking districts in the near future if "Yes" wins on Measure 02-88.  The City took down the City webpage about parking districts when the referendum qualified for the ballot and there is little public information available that might address this claim.

Section 6.15.030 (p. 2) of Ordinance 2014-05 does specify a public process for designating a new parking district.  However, Section 6.15.030 also includes an exemption provision that allows City Council to expand the parking districts upon request until Sept. 1, 2017 to any area shown in the map of "Collaboration Corvallis Project study area" without following the specified public process.   The City has not made publicly available any information about if and how this would be done.

Why did you object to this parking plan?

People have asked me why I have objected to the parking plan, and why I proceeded to file a referendum to refer the ordinance to the voters.

I saw the city council was not listening to the citizens of Corvallis.  It didn't matter how many meeting we attended.  The city council was set on enacting some new parking ordinance.

What really convinced me of this was attending the February 2014 Urban Services Committee meeting where my neighbors throughout the community showed up in mass to speak out against the ordinance.  At first it appeared the committee members/city councilors were going to listen, but then they ignored all the testimony and pushed the ordinance along.

Because of the council's disregard for the public, I decide to file the referendum.  We were able to get almost 3000 signatures in 30 days.