Welcome to the New Cascades West Website!

We’re excited to share our new website and new domain with you. It’s still the same Cascades West, now with a fresh new online home.
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Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments connects local governments and communities with services in senior care, community programs, economic development, and transportation.
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CED Impact

Completed Plans & Projects

View completed plans and projects highlighting regional planning efforts, infrastructure initiatives, and community and economic development outcomes across the Cascades West region.
See Our Projects
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Transforming Communities

We're improving the quality of life for residents in our region

CED improves the quality of life for residents in Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties, with some partnership work in Lane County. We provide staff capacity, grants, and expertise to these communities to transform and modernize city planning, housing, and more!
Explore the map below to see some of our recent work.
OCWCOG has been engaging in efforts to identify housing solutions in our region.
Map of Linn, Benton and Lincoln Counties in Oregon

Regional Affordable Housing – Lincoln County

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Regional Affordable Housing – Benton County

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Regional Affordable Housing – Linn County

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Linn and Benton Brownfields Project 2023

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Rural Capacity Grants from Business Oregon and the Ford Family Foundations – Linn County

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Rural Capacity Grants from Business Oregon and the Ford Family Foundations – Benton County

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Rural Capacity Grants from Business Oregon and the Ford Family Foundations – Lincoln County

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Want to see more of our community impact?

Check out our transportation projects to see more real-world improvements happening across Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties.
Transportation Impact

Let’s build the next success story in your county.

If you’re exploring planning, housing, or other community development needs, use this form to reach our team. We’ll follow up to learn more and share next steps.
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Housing affordability is an issue of growing importance in the country, state, and region.

We’ve been engaging in efforts to identify housing solutions for our region. Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments received funding from the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) to complete a Housing Implementation Plan. The project includes four deliverables:

  • Hosting a virtual meeting to understand regional housing needs
  • Conducting code audits for the cities of Harrisburg, Philomath, Sweet Home, and Toledo
  • Preparing a housing implementation plan tool kit based on regional housing needs and
  • Recommending code and other priority tools for the cities of Harrisburg, Philomath, Sweet Home, and Toledo.

June 29, 2022 - Regional Housing Discussion

March 01, 2022 - Regional Housing Discussion

Other Regional Housing Resources

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In 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected 7 Oregon projects to receive brownfields funding to expedite the assessment and cleanup of multiple brownfield sites in the state.

We're improving the quality of life for residents in our tri-County region.

The Community Development program of the Economic and Community Development Department seeks to improve the quality of life for residents in our tri-County region. OCWCOG has a professional staff to assist communities, especially smaller communities, with specialized tasks for which they do not have in-house expertise.

Linn and Benton Brownfields Project - 2023

In 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected 7 Oregon projects to receive brownfields funding to expedite the assessment and cleanup of multiple brownfield sites in the state. Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments is the recipient of $1 million in brownfield funds to support a variety of projects in Linn and Benton Counties. These brownfield funds will support 20 Phase 1 and 11 Phase 2 environmental assessments, four clean-up plans, four site reuse plans, the development of a Public Involvement Plan, and a variety of community engagement activities.

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OCWCOG visited approximately 30 rural communities and one tribe in our Economic Development District (EDD) region to hear about their grant needs which were predominately focused on water and sewer infrastructure.

We have received Rural Capacity Grants totaling $86,045 from Business Oregon and Ford Family Foundation for 2022/2023.

More than 60 projects were identified the first few months of this project. The COG provided grant prospecting for cities and handed off seven of the cities to Rural Prosperity Partners for further prospecting. We brought in our transportation department for conversations concerning railroad track issues in Linn County.

OCWCOG Community and Economic Development Planner Justin Peterson and Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) wrote 6 grants for our rural communities. About $300,000 was received in funding by end of October 2023. More projects are pending.

OCWCOG participated in the Regional Solution Team meetings and site visits to our rural cities and continues to do so.