Auburn residents invited to neighborhood workshops

The City of Auburn is convening six neighborhood workshops as part of its "Imagine Auburn" visioning effort. The neighborhood workshops will give area residents and employees an opportunity to share and discuss their vision and goals for the community over the next 20 years.

March 5, 2014 8:26 pm
Nancy Backus
Nancy Backus

For the Reporter

The City of Auburn is convening six neighborhood workshops as part of its “Imagine Auburn” visioning effort. The neighborhood workshops will give area residents and employees an opportunity to share and discuss their vision and goals for the community over the next 20 years.

“We like to say Auburn is more than people imagine,” said Mayor Nancy Backus. “It is going to take participation and creativity from a broad range of our residents to ensure that Auburn continues to exceed expectations and is a great place to live, work, go to school and visit over the coming decades.”

The six workshops are between March 11 and March 20 at elementary and middle schools throughout Auburn. All workshops run from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Dates and locations of the neighborhood workshops are as follows:

• March 11, Lakeland Hills Elementary, staff lounge, 1020 Evergreen Way SE

• March 12, Pioneer Elementary, gym, 2301 M St. SE

• March 13, Cascade Middle School, library, 1015 24th St. NE

• March 18, Evergreen Heights Elementary, library, 5602 S 316th St.

• March 19, Washington Elementary, library, 20 E St. NE

• March 20, Chinook Elementary, 3502 Auburn Way S.

At the neighborhood workshops, participants will be asked to imagine possibilities for a preferred future and provide insight on topics such as: the character of neighborhoods and the downtown; potential economic opportunities; the streets and conditions for walking, biking and driving; public service needs; and aspirations related to parks, community facilities, open space and trails. Basic neighborhood workshop materials will be offered in Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese, and translation services may be arranged.

The goal of the “Imagine Auburn” visioning effort is to create a long-term vision to help guide local decision-making over the next 20 years. The Vision will inform the creation of a new Auburn Comprehensive Plan scheduled to begin later this year. Auburn’s current Comprehensive Plan has received minor updates over the years but has not been fully updated since 1995.

Online participation opportunities

An additional opportunity to provide input includes an online Visioning questionnaire that is available by navigating to www.auburnwa.gov/imagineauburn. Residents can also stay informed and participate via the City’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Auburn) and Twitter (@auburnupdateslinks to external site) feeds.