Sean C. Morgan
Laura Goodrich, who started work last week in Sweet Home coordinating activities related to the South Santiam Forest Corridor, brings a passion for small towns to her new job.
Goodrich started work as the representative of the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments on Sept. 9. The position, funded by Linn County, Sweet Home and the U.S. Forest Service, lasts for one year.
Goodrich is a graduate student at Portland State University, where she is working on her master’s degree in urban and regional planning. She graduated from Portland State about three years ago with a bachelor’s degree in community development specializing in participation.
She grew up in Michigan, where her father was a real estate developer. She went to work with him painting and remodeling and then entered real estate around Holt, Mich. Tired of Michigan winters, she relocated to South Carolina, where she spent about five years working with a developer on historic preservation projects.
That was where she had her “aha moment” and discovered planning. Working with the developer, she met her first planner and decided that was what she wanted to do, she said. She dived into the field and looked for a walkable community “in the best state,” she said.
“I think Oregon, out of anywhere, does it well.”
Goodrich was impressed by how engaged Portland citizens were at the grassroots level, she said. She got involved in a couple of “Friends of” groups, that were primarily interested in bringing in recreation opportunities in eastern Portland, connecting environmental planning and land use, which led primarily to developing parks and recreation and green spaces.
Goodrich said she has a passion for small communities, like Sweet Home, and she took the opportunity to get involved here when she found about the AmeriCorps program, a domestic version of the PeaceCorps program and the opening of a RARE position. She interviewed with a couple of different communities and chose Sweet Home for the leadership, wisdom, passion and partnerships already in play with the South Santiam Forest Corridor.
“It’s unheard of for eight different bureaucracies to work together for a common goal,” Goodrich said. Excited, she moved to Sweet Home, where she has already met more neighbors than she did all her time in Portland.
“I was just really impressed to hear about what they were working on and already accomplished,” Goodrich said.
Her main goal is to work on the Forest Corridor project, a component of the South Santiam All-Lands Collaborative, Goodrich said.
The All-Lands project also includes the Livability Initiative, funded by a federal grant. Sweet Home is one of four communities throughout the nation to be selected for the program, which will provide an assessment of the community.
The Forest Corridor is the component she and others involved will vet in the community, Goodrich said, and see where the people want it to go.
Among the values associated with the Forest Corridor is access to and connecting the forest, resources and natural places to the community, connecting Sweet Home to the public lands, including economic development, Goodrich said. The land is a patchwork of state, federal and private land.
“We want to bring the wallets into Sweet Home,” she said. “I see my main role as supporting and creating capacity.”
And she will work with the community to determine what its vision is, she said.
Gov. John Kitzhaber’s Oregon Solutions team has been facilitating the project over the past year and is working on a “Declaration of Cooperation” to help guide it going forward after November.
It will outline what the partners pledge to do regarding manpower, finances and work necessary to move forward.
When Oregon Solutions pulls out, Goodrich comes in to keep partners talking and forming additional resources, she said. She will work as a connection among the partners and the community.
“I guess the main draw for me was the number of bureaus coming together,” Goodrich said. They’re using and sharing resources together to help reach what she sees as tremendous potential in Sweet Home.
She loves living in Sweet Home, Goodrich said. “Living in Portland, I had kind of forgotten what that small town feel is like.”
Goodrich is single, with no children. She has a dog and enjoys kayaking and riding her motorcycle.
After she graduates from Portland State, she intends to become a city planner.
Goodrich may be reached at the city’s planning office, (541) 367-8113.