Walla Walla 2020 and Beyond: Today's Vision for Tomorrow's Community

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On an early spring day in 1988, a group of people met to talk about the future of their Walla Walla Valley home. Our immediate objective wasto produce a preliminary vision of Walla Walla in the year 2020 and a rudimentary plan for getting from here to there. Our vision had four major elements. We wanted a green community that preserves and renews its trees, landscape, and natural resources; a community that lives lightly on the Earth by reducing its waste and energy use; a human scale community friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists; and a community with strong neighborhoods, a vital downtown civic center, and respect for its older homes, buildings, and historic architecture.Since then, we have worked together with friends, neighbors, local organizations, businesses, governments, agencies, and schools on many projects of mutual interest. Now, with the actual arrival of the year 2020, it seems appropriate to consider what’s been accomplished and how it was done, as well as where we want to go in the future. Our review is a celebration of our power to make life better through a positive vision and collaboration with many people. It’s also a reminder that, just as we’re aware that work begun 30 years ago is part of our lives now, we need to recognize that decisions we make and projects we undertake today will shape the lives of those who live here in the future.