Major new home projects launch in Sisters

            To the west of Bend, the town of Sisters is set to gain a significant boost in the number of single family homes within the city limits after several years of scarce inventory .

            Three projects -- two just underway and the revival of another that faltered in the market collapse -- could add more than 180 new units to the housing supply.

            The new communities are Clear Pine, planned in several phases to include 78 single family homes on and 22 townhomes and Kuvaito with 34 custom homes. Sales for the early phases in each project, both on the northern edge of town, began in late 2015.

            ClearPine is a joint venture of managing partner Peter Hall of Bend and other investors. Hall is also the principal in the Three Sisters Business Park to the east of the residential project.

            Hall and investors purchased the more than 20-acre property in 2005 for $3.2 million from the Sisters School District. It was  initially planned as a business park, which remains a possibility  to the south of the new residential area.

            Kuvaito will be a custom home neighborhood designed by Don Denning Artisan homes on 13 acres to the east of ClearPine and adjacent to the south from the larger acreage homes in established Trapper Point. The property is owned by Dutch Pacific Properties, an LLC that includes Shane Lundgren, whose ancestors operated the Lundgren Mill at the site and whose family has property on the Metolius River area near Camp Sherman.

            The other large project that came to a standstill in 2009 is Saddlestone, with more than 80 single family lots. The 17 acres on the northeast side of Sisters was initially developed by Pahlisch Homes, which in the early 2000s was  the region’s largest builder.

Saddlestone home design

            County records show that Pahlisch paid more than $5.6 million for the bare land and completed the infrastructure including a park and paved walking paths before Bank of the Cascades took over the project as the builder retrenched during the market downturn.

            Salem-area investor Peter Dinsdale paid the bank $2.4 million for Saddlestone in late 2009 and has now teamed with Olsen Design and Development of Monmouth to build several new homes. As of mid-December 2015 there were five pending sales of homes under construction in a range of $330,900 to $422,400. Also listed were 14 active Saddlestone lots at $69,900 to $125,900 and five new construction homes in a range of $305,900 to $403,000. And one lot has sold at $84,900.

            ClearPine is suggesting that homes be built in what the developer describes as prairie, craftsman or mid-century modern in the style of new homes being built on Bend’s west side, such as Northwest Crossing. The developer has established a lending relationship for new construction with Washington Federal Bank.

 ClearPine site illustration

            ClearPine has also identified eight preferred builders for homes expected to start in the mid-$300,000s for the initial 14-home phase on lots from 5,000 to 7,000 square feet.  

            At Kuvaito the design guidelines emphasize a blend of stone, structural brick, wood and rustic metals with all homes expected to be Green Certified. Artisan Homes will build custom homes to owners selected plans with suggested prices starting at $499,000. In all phases there are 30 lots in the 8,244 to 8,763 square foot range and four of approximately 10,300 to 32,400 square feet.

            Denning, the Kuvaito designer, is encouraging homeowners to use Artisan Homes as the builder but informed brokers in a recent presentation that the design committee would consider other contractors.

            Before the emergence of ClearPine and Kuvaito, and while Saddlestone was in hibernation, the region’s largest volume homebuilder, Hayden Homes, was active in its Village at Cold Springs on Sister’s west side with 91 single family homes and 30 townhomes/condos just east of the Sisters High School.

            Now the largest volume new home builder in Central Oregon, Hayden started the project in  2007 when the company sold four single family homes of approximately 2,400 to 2,600 square feet  in a range of $357,255 to $396,500.

A new Village@Cold Springs home sold in 2007

Since then the company has also built smaller single family homes of just over 1,000 square feet at prices as low as $131,000 in 2011, then effectively tailoring its product line to reflect lower demand during the past difficult market years.

As of December 8, 2015 there were only 22 single family homes shown as available for sale in an MLS map search of Sisters’ close-in neighborhoods, including Saddlestone, ClearPine, and Kuvaito. In the same map area parameters there were 38 reported sales on the MLS in the past 12 months, indicating a current 6.9 month supply in that area.

Typically a nearly seven-month supply based on an average of the past 12 month of sales would be considered normal, or even leaning toward an oversupply. But the Sisters area has been atypical in that sales within the city limits have been constrained by the lack of single family homes on the market.

Among the more established newer neighborhoods within the city limits are:

Buck Run - First sales began in 1997 at $39,000 of a total 74 potential lots with sales of lots at $140,000 to $160,000 in 2014-2015 and an active lot listings at  $150,000 and $249,000 in mid December 2015.

The first home smaller Buck Run home sold for $220,000 in 1997 and the top sale at $615,000 occurred at the market peak in mid-2006. The lowest recorded sale was $160,000 in the market trough years.

Coyote Springs- Initial  lot sales in Coyote Springs began in late 2000 at $77,900 and ramped up to $104,900 before developers withdrew remaining inventory  as the market continued to rise with a top sale of $265,000 in October of 2006. That lot was later sold in foreclosure at a all-time low of $48,900 in January of 2011, a dramatic indication of the roller coaster ride of Sisters--and all of Central Oregon-in the boom and bust cycle.

The bare lot churn of the project has resulted in 57 sales of the 47 lots originally platted in the project.

Home sales in Coyote Springs have ranged from a low of $315,000 in 2003, the first year a completed home sold, to $700,000 in 2010. There has been one sale in 2015, a builder spec at $594,500, although several homes have been built for lot owners.

           

Spectacular views define Pine Meadow Village

Pine Meadow Village - Coming to market in the late 1990s, Pine Meadow Village with more than 80 single family and townhome/condo sites attracted buyers with its spectacular views of the Cascades, clubhouse with pool, tennis and water features.

Including resales there have been more than 120 residential sales, excluding shared interest but including resales, and nearly 170 land sales in Pine Meadow since 1999.

            At the market peak in 2007 a perimeter lot bordered by ranchland with unobstructed mountain views sold for $325,000. In 2013 an interior lot sold for $85,000, the same as several early lots sales as the project launched in 1999.

            Home sales have ranged from the mid to upper $300,000s in the early years for traditional single family, other than small cottages, to $690,000 in 2015. There have been townhome/condo/cottage sales in from the mid $100,000s to low $300,000s.

          

CLT: A new building method makes gains in the Northwest

            If it’s natural, sustainable and has a small carbon footprint could a more than 20-year-old building system that began in Europe find a dedicated following in environmentally-conscious Oregon?

            The future of cross laminated timber, or CLT, as a structural component to mostly replace concrete, drywall and other materials will be tested with product from a southern Oregon mill and several projects underway in the state.

            By some estimates CLT could be poised to become a $4 billion national market in the foreseeable future.

            CLT technology relies on the additional structural strength derived from gluing an odd number of solid-sawn wood layers, three to nine for example, perpendicular to each other. Industrial presses then compress the layers into straight panels up to 12 x 60 feet and 20 inches thick depending on the manufacturing facility. In building construction CLT is used for roofs, walls and floors. 

CLT simplified

A Canadian developer is using primarily black spruce from boreal forests but CLT can combine spruce, fir, pine, cedar and other wood, including timber salvaged from wildland fires.

In Europe and Canada “tall timber” CLT structures, some more than 20 stories, are in the planning stages or under construction.

Among advantages of CLT most often cited are:

·        Use of a renewable resource with less environmental impact on climate change and pollution

·        Solid wood panels have the strength of concrete, but are five times lighter, and are 15 times lighter than steel

·        Thermal insulation is seven times greater than concrete and 500 times more than steel.

·        Fire resistance is greater than sheet rock

·        Construction can be faster with pre-fabricated panels and fewer tools required

·        Wood creates healthier interior conditions as the result of reduced toxic emissions compared to other materials

A leading CLT proponent is Vancouver architect Michael Green. With crusading zeal Green has carried the CLT banner to Ted talks and seminars, and is the designer force behind the Wood Innovation and Design Centre in Prince George, BC.

            The 6-story plus mezzanine and penthouse building, in cooperation with the University of Northern British Columbia, is a demonstration of CLT construction. It’s funded by more than $25 million from the provincial government and intended to be a linchpin of downtown revival in the largely resource-dependent city of north central BC.

BC's Wood Innovation and Design Centre

            In a 2013 Ted Talk, Green made the case for wood over conventional concrete and cement construction in an example of a 20-story building. http://goo.gl/DhP2aq

            “If we built a 20-story building out of cement and concrete, just manufacturing that cement would produce 1,200 tons of carbon dioxide. If we built it with wood, we’d sequester about 3,100 tons, for a net difference of 4,300 tons between the two scenarios. That’s the equivalent of about 900 cars removed from the road in one year,” Green said.

            The potential of  CLT was credited by Valerie Johnson, heir to the founder and now chief executive of D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. in Riddle, OR, with convincing her to guide the company toward CLT production after she heard a presentation by Green in 2010. The Johnson mill had been hard hit by the recession and needed an economic lift as did the timber industry dependent town in souteastern Oregon.

            In a published interview, Johnson said she an another executive decided to visit CLT manufacturing  facilities and projects in Austria and Germany. Following the tour and with existing capital and other funds including a $50,000 Oregon Best grant they added the necessary equipment at the company’s laminating production line.

In September of this year, Gov. Kate Brown announced that D. R. Johnson had become the first company in the country to be certified for manufacture of CLT for structural use.

With the APA/ANSI certification, by the American Plywood Association/American National Standards Association guidelines, the company currently produces CLT panel is sizes up to 10 x 24-feet in three, five and seven layers, primarily using either Douglas fir or Alaskan yellow cedar.

The company will also receive a $100,000 grant from Business Oregon, the state economic development agency, to offset costs of the CLT production line.

 CLT as a structural building technology had its genesis in Austria in the 1990s and there are many “tall-timber” buildings--residential and commercial--throughout Europe.

 What would be one of the world’s largest “wooden skyscrapers,’’ known as the HoHo is planned for Vienna, at more than 270 feet with a hotel, apartments, restaurant, a wellness center and offices. In Paris a 35-story CLT based apartment tower in the planning stages.

In Montreal, the Arbora mixed project in the city’s Innovation District will employ CLT material in three 8-story buildings totaling 597,000 square feet that will include 430 condo, townhouse and rental units and main floor commercial space.  Arobora will use black spruce from the northern forests of Quebec.

Arbora-Montreal's CLT mixed use community

            Manufacturing of cross laminated timber first migrated across the Atlantic to Canada in the early 2000s, buoyed by that country’s ample forest resources and receptive industry and government support.

            In 2012 the largest CLT facility in the United States began production in Columbia Falls, MT, about 10 miles from Whitefish and 15 miles to the West Glacier entrance to Glacier National Park.

            The Montana company, SmartLam, has a much larger plant than Oregon’s new CLT company. But as of early November. it had yet to receive certification for manufacturing structural CLT. The company has primarily provided  platforms at oil drilling locations, for heavy machinery support in wet soil areas of the southeast, and for bridges and other industrial uses.

            Mike Rossi, VP of Finance and Business Operations at SmartLam, said in a recent visit to the Montana plant in early November that the company is eyeing Oregon as a CLT market “far ahead” of other states in embracing the technology.

            SmartLam is gearing up for substantially increased production when it expands from it’s current 40,000 square foot facility to a new 160,000 square foot plant capable of processing 4 million board feet or 160 truckloads in a single month.

Until the D. R. Johnson mill in Oregon gained certification a Penticton, BC company, Structurlam, and Nordic Structures of Montreal, produced most certified structural timber in North America. In 2009 the BC government approved construction of six-story residential wood buildings, jump starting adoption of CLT with more than 50 Canadian projects and dozens more in the planning stage over the past few  years.

            A 2015 revision in the International Building Code has further opened doors for CLT construction in North America.

            Apart from the building code obstacles, which the IBC revision addresses on a large scale, early skeptics of CLT have questioned potential additional cost, fire resistance, the impact of timber harvests on the environment and the need for specialized building crews.

            In response, those promoting CLT note that costs are competitive with conventional construction and can even be lower with reduced foundation expense due to lighter loads, and faster construction times.

How CLT works-New York Times 2012

A 2014 study of alternative construction in the Northwest by Mahlum Architects and Walsh Construction, with Seattle and Portland offices, and Seattle engineering firm Coughlin Porter Lundeen concluded that CLT construction in a 10-story residential building could be 4% less expensive than conventional building methods. And  more savings could be realized by mixing wood frame and CLT, the study added.

            Some CLT advocates also maintain crews can be easily trained and that working with CLT panels is similar to traditional “glu-lam” construction.

            As for fire resistance, they cite the example of trying to start a campfire with large diameter logs. CLT mass timber acts more like concrete, they note, and when ignited tends to burn itself out.

            Regarding the harvest impact, statistics show that in the past 50 years the North American annual timber harvest rate was 2%, compared with an annual tree growth rate of 3%. Moreover CLT has the potential to make use of trees felled by beetle kills, which results in increased release of carbon during decay.

            In Oregon one demonstration of CLT’s future will be a 12-story mixed use building, to be known as Framework,  in Portland’s Pearl District. It will include ground floor retail, five floors each of work space and living areas and a rooftop “amenity” area.

Lever Architecture's CLT design for Portland

            The Oregon CLT movement gained momentum in January  of 2015 at the Oregon Leadership Summit with about 1,000 attendees and Michael Green was among the speakers.

            Not everyone in the design-build community believes CLT will emerge quickly in Bend.

An Bend-based architect who has offices in Bend and Whitefish, MT--only a 10 minute drive to the large CLT manufacturing facility in Columbia Falls-- points out that given CLT relies in part on timber harvest its claim to “green” is not completely assured.

            He questions whether the Bend building community will easily adopt CLT design and construction. Contractors and their subs are very busy in the currently active market and will not likely embrace something untried locally, he observes.

            Washington state appears to lag Oregon in design and building codes that open the way for CLT.

            In  mid-October CLT was the centerpiece of the Building for a Sustainable Future conference in Seattle that brought together an impressive list of 80 leaders in government, the design and building industry, business, tribes and the environmental community.

            Sponsored by Forterra, which began several decades ago as the Seattle-King County Land Trust, the conference identified outdated building codes, including those related to seismic and fire issues, and limitation of CLT  construction to six stories as obstacles to address.

8-story CLT apartment building in Finland

            Also noted was the extra time and costs for research, testing and demonstration to satisfy agencies involved in adopting and enforcing new building codes.

            “For Washington to grow a market for CLT/mass timber, incentives are needed to level the field with conventional building materials. Key demand points: building codes, education, incentives, public/government support.” concluded the Forterra post-seminar overview.

            Nevertheless, CLT has gained a toehold with smaller residential and commercial projects in Seattle with one of the more well-known efforts by Cascade Built. The company has finished several smaller CLT  homes in the city’s Madison Valley.

A CLT residence in Seattle

            In a June 2015 online article Cascade Built president Sloan Ritchie described his company’s work on a 1,500 square foot home for Seattle architect Susan Jones.

            The company built the home with panels manufactured by Structurlam of Penticton, BC in a combination of spruce, pine, balsam fir for the exterior and blue-beetle-kill lodgepole pine in some interior applications. Altogether construction required 67 panels in sizes of 2 x 10 feet to 8 x 35 feet and weighing 200 to 2,800 pounds.

            In assessing the experience, Ritchie explained that, “The overall lesson here is that the builder who has the opportunity to use CLTs needs to systematically think through everything. Given enough upfront planning, it’s a great system that creates a high-quality result.”

           

           

Bend briefs: Phoenix flights, building permits, Mirror Pond and ice rink

Up Up and Away to Phoenix

A missing piece in direct air service from Central Oregon to major western destinations could be filled soon.

            The Redmond City Council has accepted a $500,000 federal grant that would be part of a guaranteed revenue package for an airline to inaugurate nonstop service to Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport.

            The grant is part of $770,000 fund, the balance of which could  come from Redmond city coffers and the waiver of landing fees. The City of Redmond owns and operates Roberts Field, the regional airport.

            Similar revenue guarantee programs have been used in the past to entice airlines to service other destinations, including American Airlines’ direct flights to Los Angeles. That service was started then suspended in the past few years but is set to begin again Dec. 17.

Deschutes residential permits climb-but far short of peak year

            New statistics from the Deschutes County community development department show a continued climb in residential building permits. But through October of this year the numbers are well off the peak in 2005.

            For the period January through October of 2015 the county issued 387 permits for new homes, 46% fewer than the top of the building boom 10 years

ago when 837 were booked.

            At  the trough of the market in 2010 the county issued only 83 residential new home permits. Since then permits climbed slowly in 2011 and 2012 before more than doubling in 2013 to 251 as the market recovered.

            The county statistics value new residential construction through October this year at $16,193,156; alterations $966,404; and accessory building $2,442,433.

           

Mirror Pond improvement process stuck

            After  many months of committee meetings, public surveys and negotiations among key entities the effort to develop a final plan to address silt buildup in Bend’s cherished Mirror Pond on the Deschutes River appears to be stalled if not stuck.

            But it appears certain that a master plan that would have included significant development of city-owned property in the area is now off the table.

            The most recent shedule posted on the website of an Ad Hock Committee steering the development of a plan shows that Phase Three to “identify preferred strategy for immediate and long term responses to current conditions” is “currently in progress.”

            Early in October Bend’s parks and recreation director said the plan to redevelop property along Mirror Pond as part of the overall solution was on hold.

            Instead the city has reportedly narrowed the focus to potentially dredging the Pond and working on the shores to improve river flows and retard silt buildup.

            Initial discussions with Pacific Power, owner of the Newport Street dam and hydropower facility on the south end of the pond, have not yielded any certainty as to the utility’s plans for the dam. That had been a key piece of the larger plan to improve flows in the pond, which was last dredged some three decades ago.

Sharpen the blades, get out the stick or  practice your sweeping

            For all those ex-pat Canadians and former eastern college players the time is nearly here to release pent-up energy with some mayhem on the ice.

            Bend’s new multi-sports facility, The Pavilion, with its professionally refrigerated winter ice rink is set to open berfore the Christmas holidays. The refrigeration has begun and the Zamboni is on the way.

            Bend parks officials say interest by adult hockey players is brisk with nearly 120 signed up as of early November when only about a dozen more spots were available.

            Also creating demand is curling, with more than 120 registered and a waiting list started. The parks department has already ordered 40-pound curling stones and brooms for the sport.

            Hockey registration was set to end Nov. 16 and curling Nov. 20.

            The facility just west of the Simpson and Colorado Aveue roundabout will also be available for individual and family skating during the winter, then converted to court sports in the warmer seasons.

Q3 in Bend sales by $100,000 slices

            At the close of the third quarter of 2015 Bend single family home sales and median closing prices continue to outpace the the comparable nine months of 2014.

            Moreover, as has been the trend throughout the market recovery of recent years, availability of homes in the lowest price ranges continues to shrink. A case in point  is the decrease of more than 73%  in year-to-year sales in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

            Median price of homes on less than 1 acre increased by 13.60% to $327,750 from $288,500 in the comparable periods of 2014 and 2015.

            Other points to note:

·        Overall supply (inventory) of single family homes on less than an acre available as of Oct. 9 was only 2.43 months, based on average sales of the past 12 months.

·        In the $200,000 to $400,000 price range there were only 246 active listings, translating to to only 1.61 months of inventory. Markets are considered more balanced with 5-6 months inventory.

·        Although only a small percentage (1.5%) of all sales, closings of more than $1,000,000 rose to 28 sales from 18 in the same months of 2014, a 55% increase.

Charts below were created from the MLS of Central Oregon database.

Bend new UGB plan distilled to three scenarios

            Bend is getting closer to the finish line on the protracted process to establish a new urban growth boundary.

            And the most notable conclusion in a September 23 executive summary appears to favor ultimate expansion and growth of “complete communities” with an emphasis on the city’s southeast edge.

            But whether the city stumbles again or gains support from the state will not be settled until the final recommendations are due in April of 2016.

            Since 2010 the city, appointed community members and consultants have been working to fix on “remand” a plan that the state Department of Land Conservation and Development rejected.

         Among other issues, the state said the plan did not adequately address the existing supply of land within present city limits that could be developed as “infill,” and did not provide for greater urban density rather than outward expansion.

            That effort was based on a start year of 2009 to define a plan that would accommodate land for growth for 20 years to 2028 as mandated by Oregon land use law.

            If the current process is completed as scheduled next year, it would essentially be a 12-year plan given the 7 years that have passed since the rejected plan started.

Altogether the team has estimated the UGB expansion could include an additional 2,000 acres with 700 acres earmarked for residential use; 600 for employment; 600 for public facilities and 200 classified for “other” activity.          

Both the UGB proposal returned on remand and the one in progress forecast the need for 16,681 new residential units, albeit with a dramatically smaller expanded acreage in the latter.

The new plan recognizes the need for city policies to accommodate a housing mix that would be 55 percent single family homes, 10 percent single family attached and 35 percent multi-family. That compares with Bend’s historical mix of 78, 3 and 18 percent respectively in those categories. 
         The shifting balance in the proposal  to fewer single family homes and more attached and mult-family units acknowledges a consensus that Bend lacks more affordable housing that could potentially be provided with homes on smaller lots and additional apartment and condo-townhome construction.

    But housing demand in the city has for the most part leaned to single family homes on larger lots. To create an incentive for developers and builders the city has begun discussing ways to encourage building a different mix of housing, perhaps by reducing fees such as system development charges, or SDCs, required for new construction.

        Consultants working with the city on the UGB estimate there are currently 7,733 acres of developed residential lots and 2,775 acres classified as “employment” properties.

There are an estimated 2,555 acres that have 4,572 tax lots that could potentially be divided under current zoning, or “developed with infill potential.”

Another 2,859 tax lots on 1,846 acres of residential property are vacant.

            In the employment land category there are 3,452 developed tax lots on 2,775 acres and 247 vacant lots on 1,048 acres.

            As presented in July, the revised UGB proposal  is structured around three UGB scenarios that vary in emphasis on location and land use. Included would be zones of mostly employment districts with little or no residential; residential with local employment;  or residential with significant employment and larger commercial areas.

            The UGB participants also evaluated three supplemental analysis areas with accompanying maps, (SAAMs), that according to the executive summary were each considered with the same criteria that included “levels of employment and residential growth and the same assumptions about development inside the UGB as the expansion scenarios.”

            Of the three scenarios the top performer was one that the earlier June report described as “...focuses on creating new ‘complete communities’ with a mix of housing and employment in all quadrants of the City. Nearly all expansion areas provide a full mix of uses, including housing, employment areas, shopping/services, and school and parks. This scenario emphasizes southeastern expansion, but includes smaller expansions to the northeast, west, north and south.”

UGB Scenarios- Sources:City of Bend and Bend Bulletin

            However, the executive summary qualifies that the top Scenario (2.1) of the three, “...is only a starting point for crafting the proposed UGB update.”

            The next step will be to take a more indepth look at “subareas” in the study and refine those in relation to state land use Goal 14 standards for land development.

            Goal 14 requires UGB plans address, “1) efficient accommodation of identified land needs; 2) orderly and economic provision of public facilities and services; 3) comparative environmental, social, economic and energy consequences; and 4) compatibility of proposed urban uses with nearby agricultural and forest activities occurring ...outside the UGB.”

            Much of the material in the executive summary relates to the big picture of where expansion could occur and generally what type of development would be preferable.

            A presentation to the Central Oregon Women’s Council of Realtors by Damian Syrnyk, Bend senior city planner, provides more “on the ground” details of potential new criteria for development.

            Syrnyk’s presentation revealed possible revisions in the city’s development code could involve:

·        lower minimum lot sizes and property setbacks

·        reduction of parking ratios for residential housing

·        more diversity in RS zone (residential single family) housing types

·        greater density in RS and RM (residential multi-family) zones

·        requirement for master plans for large tracks of vacant residential land

·        new development patterns in “opportunity sites” that would allow approximately 1,400 more housing units and 700 jobs in targeted areas than now allowed

Concurrent with the umbrella UGB process, another group comprised of city and community members has focused on a “Central West  Side Plan” for parts of the city generally east of the Deschutes River. That plan would be meshed into the UGB process, city officials have said.

            City officials and community members involved in that plan announced recently that a survey with more than 1,300 respondents favored less density on the west side of Bend.

Moreover, the UGB executive summary released September 23 notes that refinement of the potential west side subarea could entail reduction of, “commercial and industrial use.”

            The early results of that process involving 23 committee members opens the option for building heights up to five stories in certain west side locations where commercial activity is greatest including the College Way and Newport Avenue roundabout below the Central Oregon Community College campus.

            But it would limit building height in areas closest to residential areas such as around the Galveston and 14^th Avenue roundabout.

           Initial expansion of the UGB boundary is only for the state mandated planning process and does not concurrently change the city limits.

            Moving into October the UGB team will hold a public open house Oct. 1 to present the plan in progress and is also gathering comments from an online survey that began Sept. 24.

            More information on the UGB process is available at the City of Bend website link: http://bend.or.us/index.aspx?page=1290 including a link to the online survey.

Tree Farm urban interface project gains county approval

            After making revisions to address concerns over wildlife protections and wildfire control, the proposed 50 home Tree Farm development plan on Bend’s west side has been approved by Deschutes County Commissioners.

            In a decision September 23 the commissioners agreed that issues raised by a hearings officer who turned down the original plan had been adequately addressed.

            The new decision includes revisions that will:

·        require a 30-foot home setback from slopes with grades greater than 20 percent, or a fireproof barrier such as a wall if less than the setback.

·        involve a new access road from NW Crosby Drive for emergency and fire access

·        include more than 90 percent open space within the 530 acre project, with homes sited outside of traditional wildlife migration areas.

 The Tree Farm is a venture of the Miller family which has owned timberland and wood products companies in the region for many years and has logged the property in the past. Other investors are  West Bend Property 2, which includes Brooks Resources, Tennant Development, Kirk Schueler and Ron White.

Developers have said the project is an example of a transitional buffer from higher density neighborhoods within the city limits to the east and public lands and large private property parcels to the west.

            For more detail on Tree Farm follow this link to an earlier post:

Friday, November 21, 2014

The Tree Farm unites veteran developers-could be on market in late 2015

New waterpark makes big splash

            Getting soaked...and having a great time!

            The much-anticipated official opening of Bend’s new whitewater and “safe passage” park on the Deschutes River brought out water sports participants and spectators the weekend of September 19 and 20.

Fun for young and old

Spectator friendly

            Financed mostly with funds from a $20 million voter approved bond issue and volunteer donations, the water sports facility emerged after  removal of the old Colorado Street dam.

            Many decades back the dam slowed waters of the Deschutes to essentially create a large pond that stored logs for the massive timber mills that then were the backbone of the regional economy.

For the experts

New multi-sports facility to open in November

             Also funded by the bond issue is the city’s new multi-sports complex along Simpson Avenue, only a few blocks south of the water park. It’s scheduled to open in November with the centerpiece winter ice rink for skating lessons, family skating and organized hockey leagues.

https://youtu.be/KMeQqGKncpI

           

Another victory for Bend's 4-Year Beaver campus fans

            As construction proceeds on the first phase of the OSU-Cascades 4-Year campus the university has notched another victory against opponents with a decision by the Oregon Court of Appeals.

            University officials announced Sept. 15 that the state’s second highest court upheld the land use process that resulted in selection of a site on Bend’s west side. This follows earlier favorable decisions by the City of Bend, a hearings officer and the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

            The group Truth in Site has appealed the university’s selection of a 10-acre site on the west side of NW Chandler Avenue and NW Century Drive. Among other objections the group argues that locating the college there will create significant traffic problems and that an alternative site such as the city-owned Juniper Ridge north of town would be preferable.

            Truth in Site has also maintained the city was required to develop a master plan for a potentially larger campus that could include either a 46 or 76 acre site near the current 10-acre campus under construction, even though the university has yet to acquire those properties.

            The Court of Appeals and earlier decisions have all established that the university was not required to develop a master plan for property that it was considering but had not purchased.

           

An illustration of the first OSU-Cascades 4-Year campus building

On the present site the university has begun construction of a 43,650 square foot academic center to include art classrooms, laboratories and offices to accommodate nearly 1,900 students in the Fall of 2016.

            Also underway is site preparaton for a 113,000 square foot student residence and dining hall.

            The first freshman class of up to 100 students is enrolling for the OSU-Cascades 4-year program this Fall. Previously students at the school have completed their freshman and sophomore years at Central Oregon Community College before finishing junior and senior years at the college’s 7,000 square foot Cascades Hall located within the COCC campus on the south side of Awbrey Butte.

            Beginning this Fall there are approximately 1,000 students now enrolled who will take classes at Cascades Hall and have the option for dining and living facilities of COCC while the new campus is under construction. University officials have said the long term forecast is to cap enrollment at 5,000 students.

            The university  expects total enrollment to increase to more than 1,500 students in the 2015-2016 academic year and to reach slightly more than 3,700 by the 2025-26 year, according to a published report.

            The 10-acre campus will need to be expanded by 2020 to accommodate that growth, the university estimates.

            In announcing the favorable Court of Appeals decision, OSU-Cascades president Becky Johnson expressed thanks, “for the support form so many who have helped us get to this significant milestone. We are also set to launch the next phase of public engagement, that will be as comprehensive as possible, as part of our assessment of the adjacent 46-acre pumice mine and 76-acre demolition landfill for potential campus expansion.”