Five years after the Holiday Farm fire, Blue River has a new neighborhood. On Wednesday, the McKenzie Community Land Trust cut the ribbon on six freshly built homes now available for ownership by fire survivors.

The event drew a surprise guest: Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek told an excited crowd the new Rose Street Neighborhood is a “blueprint” for disaster recovery.

“You’re teaching us all a critical lesson,” she said from a podium in front of one of the new homes. “I couldn’t be more happy to know that this is just the beginning of your housing development that you’re working on. We’re gonna bring jobs back to the community as well, because at the end of the day this is about economic development writ large. And to have the community land trust available—that’s a game changer.”

Tiffany Ecker

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