City of Eugene planning staff presented draft goals and policies for the community engagement chapter of the Envision Eugene comprehensive plan in a recorded presentation and opened a public survey that will be available through the end of July 2025.

The draft chapter, presented by Stuart Warren, an associate planner on the community planning and design team, contains three goals and 16 draft policies intended to guide community engagement for legislatively adopted planning processes that could have significant impacts on underserved community groups and the city at large. "This draft chapter currently contains 3 goals and 16 policies," Warren said during the presentation.

The presentation said the community engagement chapter is intended to guide how the city plans and makes engagement opportunities available across planning phases, and to focus efforts on people from underserved community groups. Under the first draft goal, "equitable and outcome oriented community engagement," staff drafted seven policies that include Welcome and Experience (to design welcoming engagement opportunities), Design for Equity (to prioritize needs of people most impacted and least able to influence processes), and a policy called Demographic Diversity directing staff to increase participation from people from underserved community groups on boards and panels. Warren described these as examples rather than an exhaustive list.

The second draft goal, "accessible, accountable, and transparent engagement processes," contains six draft policies, among them Community Engagement Plans (with subpolicies describing how plans should be developed and how the community should be involved) and "multiple opportunities in 4 match formats," which directs staff to provide both formal and informal engagement opportunities across planning process phases. The third goal, "Foster Healthy Dialogue," includes three draft policies covering cultivating partnerships and relationships across city departments, community member compensation for participation by members of underserved community groups, and guidance on advisory panels.

Warren outlined next steps: the online survey is posted on the project’s Engage Eugene page and "The survey will be open until the end of July of 2025," he said. In 2025, staff said they will work with an equity advisory panel to refine the draft goals and policies and then begin working with decision makers to incorporate feedback. The presentation also noted that the comprehensive plan guides the city’s land-use planning within the urban growth boundary and that these policies, once adopted, will inform staff work on development regulations, long-range planning projects, and financial decisions.

The recorded presentation and the full draft goals and policies are posted on the project webpage; Warren directed viewers to the slide QR code and the link in the video description to access the survey and supporting materials. He encouraged continued engagement through the Urban Growth Strategies project page and by contacting project staff with questions or feedback.