FAQs

West Linn and the community are collaborating on VISION43, a bold plan to revitalize the Highway 43 corridor over the next 50 years focusing on creating a sense of place and local identity, ensuring safe crossings, promoting vibrant commerce, and establishing pedestrian networks and enhancing neighborhood connections.  

Objectives

✓Create a new community vision for the Highway 43 corridor

✓Engage community members and neighborhoods to help craft recommendations

✓Improve opportunities for walking and bicycling within and to the corridor

✓Create opportunities for more businesses, housing, and gathering places

✓Update City plans and policies to implement project goals and recommendations

Planning for the future of Highway 43 is essential for several reasons:

• Safety Improvements: Enhancing the neighborhood connection and identifying safety improvements needed for pedestrian and bicycle significantly improves safety for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries.
• Economic Development: Creating a mixed-use zone in focus areas along the corridor can stimulate economic growth by attracting businesses, improving accessibility, and increasing property values. Mixed-use developments along the corridor can create a vibrant community, boosting local commerce and job opportunities.
• Environmental Benefits: Modernizing the land uses adjacent to the highway with environmentally-friendly designs can reduce pollution and promote sustainable practices. This includes improving public transportation options and creating pedestrian and bike-friendly pathways.
• Community Connectivity: Enhancing connections between neighborhoods and adjacent areas can foster a sense of community and improve access to essential services, recreational areas, and commercial centers.
• Long-Term Vision and Preparedness: Having a comprehensive plan ensures that the community is prepared for future growth and changes. It allows for proactive measures rather than reactive solutions, making it easier to secure funding and support from government agencies and stakeholders.
• Quality of Life: Improved infrastructure and better connectivity contribute to an enhanced quality of life for residents. Safe and efficient transportation options, coupled with well-planned community spaces, create a more livable and enjoyable environment.

By planning for the future of Highway 43, the City can ensure that the corridor evolves to meet the needs of its residents, supports economic growth, and maintains a high standard of safety and sustainability.

The primary goals of the vision plan are to create a sense of place and local identity, ensuring safe crossings, promoting vibrant commerce, and establishing pedestrian networks and enhancing neighborhood connections. 

Through community input and analysis, the City will reimagine Highway 43 to seamlessly integrate with surrounding neighborhoods and the whole community, prioritizing a safe and accessible environment for people to comfortably walk, bike, and roll; encouraging development patterns that give people a variety of options to move within the corridor and enhancing connections and access to neighborhoods and surrounding areas, and developing the corridor to serve as a hub for living, working, and recreational activities, featuring a mix of housing, shopping, restaurants, and recreational spaces.    

VISION43 is a land use framework that aims to improve walking and biking opportunities within the corridor and create opportunities for businesses, housing, and gathering places. The vision plan connects and builds upon goals, policies, and planning from the Bolton and Robinwood Neighborhood Plans, the Highway 43 Concept Plan, the West Transportation Systems Plan, and the West Linn Comprehensive Plan.The VISION43 Plan will be a foundational document guiding the revitalization of land use on the corridor over the next 50 years.

The VISION43 planning area encompasses Oregon Highway 43, stretching north from the I-205 interchange and including the land alongside the highway corridor to Lake Oswego. As the gateway to West Linn, Highway 43 is not only a crucial north/south transportation link in the Portland Metro Region but also functions as West Linn's primary thoroughfare and a shopping area for local community members.

Creating the VISION43 plan will take two years. VISION43 kicked off in December 2023 and is expected to be completed in Fall 2025.

• Zoning changes to allow for a walkable mix of housing options, businesses, and places to eat, drink, and gather
• Transportation design improvements, including pedestrian crossings, streetscaping, landscaping strips, and lighting improvements
• Improvements in pedestrian and bicycle access and connectivity
• Identification of financing options to help fund redevelopment and transportation improvements in the corridor, such as an Urban Renewal District or Tax Increment Financing

The VISION43 planning project emphasizes extensive public engagement throughout each step of the visioning process. The specific timeline for the VISION43 project is: 

November 2024

Finalize the Draft Vision and Goals Statement 

Incorporate the feedback from Survey 2 to prepare a Draft Vision and Goals Statement.

Fall 2024 - May 2025

Corridor Alternatives and Concepts 

• Preliminary Connectivity Improvements and Corridor Concepts

Evaluate the preliminary connectivity improvements and code concepts. Prepare renderings illustrating potential corridor recommendations.

• Comprehensive Plan/Zoning Concepts

Review Comprehensive Plan policies for consistency with the draft vision and goals statement and identify needed policy revisions or additions to achieve that vision. Assess potential changes to the City’s zoning map and development requirements.

• Draft Preferred Corridor Concepts

• Transportation Analysis

Evaluate transportation-related impacts associated with proposed changes to the comprehensive plan, zoning map, and/or community develop code under existing and projected future traffic conditions to determine if they have a significant effect on the transportation system. 

• Tax Increment Financing District

Evaluate the potential to establish a TIF District along Highway 43 to fund capital projects.

May 2025 to September 2025

Draft Vision Plan

• Prepare final draft Vision Plan document.
• Prepare final draft Comprehensive Plan/Development Code Amendments

September 2025 to December 2025

Corridor Vision Plan Adoption

• Adopt Vision Plan Document and Comprehensive Plan/Development Code Amendments.

Get involved in VISION43 to transform the corridor into a safer, more vibrant, and well-connected destination! The Vision 43 webpage is always open for you to comment, take the latest survey, map concerns or opportunities, ask questions, and stay updated.

Look out for pop-up feedback opportunities at stores, public places, and events, as well as listening sessions, online surveys, a community workshop, and City Council and Planning Commission meetings throughout the year leading up to the draft of the VISION43 Strategic Plan. Project team members will be present at various community events, so keep an eye out and take the opportunity to engage with us.

While both projects reimagine critical areas in West Linn and meet at the I-205/Highway 43 Interchange, VISION43 is focused on reimagining zoning along Highway 43 north of the I-205 Interchange. VISION43 seeks to foster a sense of identity, community, and well-being and improve neighborhood connectivity, transit connections, and bicycle and pedestrian safety in this area.

Updating the 2016 OR43 Concept Plan is not a direct component of the VISION43 planning process. VISION43 is a complementary project to the Concept Plan, focusing on land use adjacent to the corridor, neighborhood connections, and pedestrian safety improvements. As currently envisioned, VISION43 will generally adhere to the road design recommendations in the Highway 43 Concept Plan, though some additions or modifications may be identified. 

VISION43 will identify proposed improvements to bicycle and pedestrian connectivity as well as additional traffic control or intersection enhancements to facilitate better connections to and across the highway. Any recommendations that differ from the 2016 OR43 Concept Plan will be clearly noted. Additionally, the process will highlight instances where standards for transportation elements—such as sidewalk or bicycle lane widths—have changed since the 2016 OR43 Concept Plan was developed.

The project team has not yet conducted this analysis and therefore does not currently have answers to these questions. However, VISION43 includes an evaluation of the requirements outlined in the State Transportation Planning Rule (TPR) to determine whether proposed zoning changes would significantly affect the performance of Highway 43. If a significant effect is identified, the team will develop and assess potential mitigation measures to address these impacts. VISION43 will fully develop and document these mitigation measures, along with any other proposed adjustments to the transportation network, to support travel within the project area.