An independent civic initiative · Sisters, Oregon

Designing the future of our mountain community, together.

The Sisters 2040 Project is a long-range vision for our town and a working design lab. We do the research, try things out at small scale, and ask everyone who lives here to help shape the Sisters we hand to the next generation.

Read the vision Get involved

We are not planning for a larger Sisters.
We are designing a better Sisters.

Every major civic decision should answer one question: will this make Sisters a better place to live twenty-five years from now? We call it the mountain town test.

The 2040 vision

Seven outcomes worth twenty-five years of work

We think Sisters can be one of the most livable, resilient, connected small mountain towns in America. Measured by outcomes residents can actually see and check, not slogans.

The full vision

Fire-Resilient Sisters

Wildfire readiness that starts before homes are built and covers whole neighborhoods, forests, evacuation routes, and water.

If a fast-moving fire came at us on a summer weekend, how long would it take to get everyone in Sisters Country out safely?

Education First

Sisters should be the best small town in Oregon to raise a family, with strong schools, outdoor learning, arts, and real roles for young people.

What would it take for every teacher who wants to live in Sisters to actually afford it?

Smart Growth

Put growth where the town can support it. Protect open space and neighborhood character everywhere else.

Where should the next decade of housing go, and what should it look like so Sisters still feels like Sisters?

Third Places

Everyone should have somewhere to go besides home and work. Parks, cafés, trails, halls, and rooms that actually welcome you.

Where can a Sisters teenager go on a snowy Tuesday night in January without spending money?

Connected Sisters

Trails that work as real transportation, connecting neighborhoods to schools, downtown, Whychus Creek, and the forest.

Can a ten-year-old bike safely from every Sisters neighborhood to school?

A Resilient Local Economy

An economy built on locally owned business, remote work, recreation, the arts, and the trades.

How many Sisters storefronts are locally owned, and what would keep it that way through 2040?

Government That Works

Civic leadership that is transparent, measurable, and responsive to the people who live here.

Could any resident, in five minutes, find out how a recent civic decision was made and what it cost?

Explore all seven focus areas

The goals, the evidence, the open questions, and where each one needs help.

The engine of the work

The Sisters Civic Design Lab

A community lab that researches, designs, prototypes, and measures improvements to town life. It's independent, nonpartisan, and advisory by charter.

The Lab works in six studios: community design, wildfire and resilience, education and youth, economy and innovation, mobility, and data and futures. It does not implement anything by decree. It publishes evidence, tests ideas cheaply, and hands its recommendations to accountable public partners.

Inside the Lab

01
Observe
Listen, map, and measure how the town actually works.
02
Imagine
Design options worth arguing about, grounded in evidence.
03
Prototype
Test ideas cheaply and reversibly before anyone commits.
04
Measure
Publish what happened, including the failures.
05
Recommend
Hand results to accountable public partners.

On the workbench

The first projects, labeled for what they are

Every project shows a trust label for what it really is: vision, proposal, research, or prototype. Nothing aspirational gets passed off as adopted policy.

All five projects

Proposal

Sisters Loop Trail

A continuous walking and biking loop around town, linking every neighborhood to the schools, downtown, the parks, Whychus Creek, and the forest trails.

Next stepFinish the gap inventory and publish the first candidate alignment map for public critique.

Prototype

Connected Sisters Map

An open map of how Sisters actually connects. Every path, sidewalk, crossing, and gap, as shared ground for every other conversation.

Next stepPublish the draft prototype map and schedule the first community field-mapping day.

Research

Fire-Resilient Neighborhood Standard

Researching a voluntary, street-scale standard for wildfire readiness, because embers do not stop at property lines.

Next stepFinish the evidence review and get the fire professionals in a room to shape the first draft.

“The future of Sisters should be intentionally designed, collaboratively built, and continuously improved.”

Civic Design Lab Charter

This only works with you

Made by residents, or not at all

Nothing on this site is finished. Every proposal is a starting point that needs local knowledge, honest objections, and better ideas.

Share an idea Become a fellow

The research library

Evidence before opinion

Briefs that separate what the research shows from what's still uncertain. They are published for residents to challenge.

Browse the library

July 2, 2026Education / Housing

Teachers Can't Stay Where They Can't Live: Housing and Retention in Amenity Towns

High-amenity small towns keep pricing out the public servants they depend on. What the evidence shows about teacher housing, and what other communities have tried.

Education and Youth Studio

June 25, 2026Transparency / Governance

Deciding in the Open: Civic Transparency at Small-Town Scale

Trust in local government gets built or spent through the mechanics of how decisions are made visible. A look at what actually works, and what backfires.

Data and Futures Studio

June 12, 2026Wildfire / Resilience

Living With Fire: What the Evidence Says About Wildfire and Towns Like Sisters

Sisters sits in a fire-adapted ponderosa landscape. A plain-language look at what wildfire research can and cannot tell a small mountain town about getting ready at community scale.

Wildfire and Resilience Studio

Follow the work

An occasional letter about what the Lab is learning, trying, and asking the community. It’s substantive, it isn’t frequent, and it is easy to unsubscribe.