All About CFF
	Our Goal: To improve the livability of Florence through public education and community involvement.

	Annual Reports	Citizens For Florence began in March of 1997 as a group of Florence-area residents who came together to discuss the prospect of strip development on Highway 101 north of the Florence business area. As the group slowly evolved into a community interest organization, it became apparent that we could not look at one issue in isolation. For example, a project large enough to effect the sewer system has some effect on our water supply, police force needs, traffic congestion, and even stormwater runoff. In 2000, CFF became an affiliate of 1000 Friends of Oregon, a statewide land use watchdog organization. After a while, CFF developed a Vision for Florence - a set of documents clearly defiing what CFF is striving to maintain and attain - a more liveable Florence.  This vision, like the City in which we live, is constantly evolving to meet the challenge of planning for Florence's future. v
	Nonprofit Status

Who is Citizens For Florence?

Over the years, Citizens For Florence has touched on topics ranging from a politically red-hot proposed 40-store outlet mall to a proposed sewage treatment system and the adequacy of the city's water supply to support 200 more acres of new development.

This organization has grown out of many individuals’ desire to maintain the lifestyle Florence has to offer - one of a “small town,” where your neighbors know your first name and you share a bag of chips with the bank president at the Little League baseball game.

Florence has grown to be what it is today because its citizens were willing to spend their time volunteering, to donate their hard earned money to build the parks, to watch over our children at school, to build one of the best libraries in the state, and to make sure those less fortunate don’t go hungry or without medical care.

Citizens For Florence has focused some of that same public interest energy and community commitment to help Florence residents understand the increasingly complex workings of our local government and city issues. From the beginning, we noticed that the City Council, the Planning Commission, and the public were not getting all the information they needed to make informed decisions. We decided to do something about it. Our Annual Reports contain more details about what we've accomplished so far.

We have also accumulated a small video library, which is available for loan to local organizations.

We are registered in Oregon as a Public Benefit, Not-For-Profit Corporation and have received Federal designation as a non-profit corporation. We have no “members,” only a board of directors, in response to numerous threats of personal lawsuits against any "members" who opposed certain development proposals.

Thanks to the signing by Governor Kitzhaber of the anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) legislation, CFF directors decided to publicly release their names in July of 2001.  For many years, we kept the identity of our directors confidential - due to direct and indirect threats of business boycott, personal intimidation of family members, and threats of so-called "libel" lawsuits from local and out of town developers who objected to CFF's testimony and evidence offered to local governments about their projects. With the anti-SLAPP suit legislation going into effect, the directors decided they  had sufficient protection from SLAPP suits to be able to publicly announce their participation in CFF's activities.

 Information about our contributors and supporters will remain confidential.