About Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations

Mission | History | Board members | Credits

Mission

Our mission is to promote and protect citizen involvement in land-use issues.  We currently have these top priorities:

• Increasing the number of Oregonians having the ability to vote on annexations, known in these pages as "VOA".
• Preserving citizens' right to vote on annexations.
• Helping ensure that annexation votes --such as ORS 195 annexations-- are fair.
• Ensuring that annexation ordinances are well-implemented and informative,
• Helping citizens control local growth by calling for SDCs to cover the full costs of growth.

What is “Voter Annexation?”

"Voter Annexation" is a short-hand term for the process of requiring voter approval of new annexations to a city. This requirement is put into place via city charter amendments. Corvallis passed the first one in 1976. 29 other Oregon cities, including Salem, have since followed suit with others in the works. Nearly all were passed by initiative and by large margins. OCVA is a coalition of citizens' groups within those communities. Where Oregonians have been given a choice of whether or not they want to approve annexations, they have overwhelmingly said “YES!”

Why are city voters passing these measures?

Because they want a greater say in how their communities grow and in who pays for that growth. Too often, they feel shut out of the decision-making process by their local jurisdictions.

History

	Here's a great story about the birth of OCVA, as told by Jerry Ritter, former OCVA Secretary.
	Read a history of OCVA, written by former Board member Kevin Frostad.

Board Members

Credits

The OCVA web site was created by John Bolte and Brian Beinlich, with assistance from Bill Bodden and Richard Reid.  Our webmaster is Brian Beinlich.

Updated April 4, 2020