Bend 2015 - a milestone for many new projects

            It’s an understatement to say Bend has a full plate of government and civic issues or projects heading into the summer months of 2015.

            With the housing market recovery well underway many issues that had been dormant with the poor economy are now coming to the top of a busy agenda.

            What to do with Mirror Pond? Where to build the 4-Year OSU-Cascades Campus? How to fashion an Urban Growth Boundary plan to satisfy the State of Oregon? These are the key issues as yet decided.

            Already underway, however, is the Bridge Creek piping and water treatment project after the city has mostly prevailed in and number of challenges.

            Also progressing are two recreation projects that promise to build on the city’s established tourism reputation and appeal as well to outdoor-loving residents- the new whitewater park and fish passage at Colorado Street on the Deschutes and a nearby recreation center that will include the city’s first public ice rink.

            Add to the mix that Deschutes County, with Bend leading the way, has just been named the fastest growing county in Oregon, growth which also brings related pressure on streets, highways and other infrastructure.

The future vision for Mirror Pond

Mirror Pond of the Deschutes River framed by Fall foliage

After many months and numerous public meetings and surveys Bend City Council has approved in principle a plan that would retain many features of Mirror Pond on the Deschutes River, while also involve removing an the existing small hydroelectric dam and redevelopment of properties along the stream into mixed use residential, office and retail facilities.

As envisioned the plan would entail the city acquiring the current dam property from the utility PacificCorp. and financing redevelopment of that and other downtown city property in a public-private partnership.

Thus far PacificCorp. has yet to agree to selling the dam and property although parks and other city officials have been meeting with power company representatives.

OSU-Cascades: an emerging 4-Year campus

The Oregon State University Cascades campus will admit its first freshman class of 100 students for a 4-year degree in the Fall of 2015 as plans to build facilities on a 10-acre site on Bend’s west side work their way through a legal challenge.

The first year students will take classes and have the opportunity to live on the existing shared OSU Cascaces-Central Oregon Community College campus.

The initial Phase I site at NW Chandler Avenue and Century Drive was approved by the City of Bend. But some residents acting under the umbrella organization, Truth in Site, delayed the project with an appeal to the state Land Use Board of Appeals. LUBA is expected to issue a decision in late April. 

Assuming the university will move ahead with the initial 10-acre site it would then initiate the process for approvals in an adjacent 46-acre site to complete the campus with additional classroom, administration and student housing.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

OSU Cascades 4-Year Campus survives council vote - next hurdle a state appeal?

How and where should Bend grow?

Among all the big issues facing Bend in 2015 the successful completion of its state-required plan for how and where the city will grow may have the broadest impact.

The city, as with most larger municipalities in Oregon,  must come up with a plan for expanding its urban growth boundary to provide enough land to accommodate growth in 20-year increments.

Bend is already behind the curve after having earlier attempts remanded by the state Department of Land Conservation and Development. The agency essentially said the city did not adequately consider existing land for development within the current boundary or provide for greater density.

There is more urgency as Bend and Deschutes County’s population increases at a pace greater than most Oregon cities. More affordable single family housing inventory is scarce and the rental property vacancy rate is by some accounts below 1% while rental costs reach historic levels.

As a consequence of the state’s rejection of the city’s initial UGB plan in 2008, local citizen and other members of advisory groups have scaled back  from about 8,000  to a range of 1,000 to about 3,000 the acreage that might be added to the city. A housing mix of 55% single family, 10% townhome-type and 35% multi-family units such as apartments is now being considered.

By some estimates more than 80% of Bend residential units constructed over the past approximately six years were single family homes.

City officials are also working on a plan that would channel greater density development of mixed use including residential, retail and office development to the east of the present downtown core along the Highway 97 - Third Street commercial corridor.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Bend UGB process takes a big step in a long trek

The Bridge Creek water project: City’s moving ahead after legal battle

Although it’s running several years behind the original plan, Bend’s expansion of its water system is moving ahead with a favorable decision in US District Court.

The Forest Service environmental impact statement regarding diverting water across the federal agency’s managed land west of Bend adequately addressed key issues, the court ruled in December.

Central Oregon Land Watch promptly appealed the ruling to the often enviromentalist-friendly Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Then an attorney for Land Watch  initiated an attempt at mediation, according to reports in local media.

At issue with the opponents is whether expanding the city’s existing groundwater wells to accommodate additional capacity would be more beneficial to the environment and fish habitat than increased withdrawals from Bridge and Tumalo Creeks to provide Bend’s domestic water. The city project involves replacing aging pipe that diverts from the Tumalo Creek watershed, and construction of a new water treatment filtration system.

The project was formed after the federal Environmental Protection Agency warned Bend it would need to design additional improvements in the system to address problems with potential hazardous bacteria such as cryptosporidium.

"Play to Live"-Bend’s new mantra for recreation projects

The Colorado Street dam is now history

Anyone crossing the Colorado Avenue Bridge on in early Spring of 2015 is an eyewitness to a monumental and much anticipated change in the historic flow of the Deschutes River through town.

A dam built early the last century to hold logs for the city’s once thriving mill is now gone and the site is busy with large cranes and other heavy equipment moving rocks and other material to create the estimated $9.7 million “Colorado Dam Safe Passage Project.”

When complete, possibily in late Summer this year, the river will have three channels including the centerpiece whitewater park with waves that can be manipulated by computers inflating and deflating rubber bladders in the water.

Another channel will be for casual river floaters and the third will be designed as habitat for fish and other wildlife that use riparian areas.

 

     At Colorado and Simpson Avenue, only a block uphill from the river project, construction crews are well along with site preparation for the new multi-sports complex  that will have a seasonal ice rink for skating and hockey along with courts for pickleball, basketball, volleyball, tennis and badminton. It’s also expected to open later in 2015.

Bend Parks and Recreation has adopted the slogan "Play to Live" to describe the new project initiatives.

Townhomes & Condos also showing strength

            As single family homes prices continue to recover across Central Oregon the much smaller category of townhomes and condominiums is also showing substantial strength.

            Most of that market segment is concentrated in Bend, with 260 sales in calendar 2014, followed by Redmond, 54, Sunriver, 38, and Sisters, 24. Of the four sub-markets, Bend accounted for nearly 70% of townhome and condo sales.

            Redmond notched the largest gain in median prices of townhomes and condos, with a 16.42% increase to $195,000, followed by Sisters, 12.41% to $203,774; Sunriver, 10.18% to $212,088; and Bend, 9.50% to $259,250.

            Given the pace of 12-month sales Bend is showing the greatest demand with only a 4.57 months inventory while Sunriver had the highest inventory at 12 months, Redmond, 5.76 and Sisters, 6.78.  

            The tighter inventory in Bend generally reflects the city’s position as the largest sub-market in Central Oregon, as well as the demand for housing at prices lower than the cost of single family homes. In Bend, the price of a single family home in 2014 was $303,386.

            Townhomes and condos in Bend have attracted not only vacation home buyers at neighborhoods such as Mt. Bachelor Village and 7^th Mountain Resort (formerly Inn at the 7^th Mountain) but also investors seeking properties for the exceptionally tight rental market where vacancy rates are reported at less than 1%. 

Another top 10 for Bend-"sunny and mild all year round"

            Yet another of those “best of this or that” labels is now attached to living in Bend.

            In a March 12 article the magazine tapped the city as one of  “The 10 Best Places to Live Now “ in the country.

            The article cites the usual outdoor opportunities such as hiking, biking, skiing, rafting, rock climbing and fishing that make Bend an attractive place to settle. And, in in an exaggerated weather report, the author notes “Bend is sunny and mild all year round.”

            Although “the job market is limited” -- with a mention of “tourism, a nearby medical center and Les Schwab Tires” as major employers - there is nevertheless, “a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit”  evident from outdoor-oriented startups to the  “micro-artisanal (?), with athletes, artists, and crafstpeople finding ways to get by in paradise.”  Wow!!!

            Scant mention is made of Bend’s thriving beer brewing industry, other than the possibility that dining at a local restaurant might put you “elbow to elbow with a blacksmith, a surgeon, a musician, an ultramarathoner, or a microbrewer “ And there’s a “tiny sour-beer lab” run by an urban refugee from Seattle.
            Joining Bend on the 10 Best list, both big and small,  are Portland, ME; Nashville, TN, Ventura, CA; San Francisco; New Orleans, Carbondale, CO; Burlington, VT; Bozeman, MT; and St. Paul, MN.

            The full article:           

http://www.mensjournal.com/expert-advice/the-10-best-places-to-live-now-20150312/bend-oregon

Land Trust hopes to work with new Skyline Forest owners

            Faced with the surprise announced sale of 33,000 acres of private timberland it has been trying to preserve from major development the Deschutes Basin Land Trust says it remains interested in plans of the new Singapore-based owners.

            In February Cascade Timberlands LLC, a subsidiary of Fidelity National Ventures, announced it had sold the forest land in an important view corridor between Bend and Sisters to Whitefish Cascade Forest Resources LLC. That tract was one of several totaling nearly 200,000 acres that Fidelity said it sold for $63 million. Deschutes County records show an agreement for the sale was completed in October of 2014 with recording on February 17.

            The sale culminated nearly a decade of Cascade’s discussion with the Land Trust on a way to keep much of the acreage in sustainable timber production while reserving a portion for development of a residential community of larger home sites.

            In a statement in the Land Trust’s newsletter, director Brad Chalfant wrote that, “However startling as that news may be for some, the Land Trust actually views the change in ownership as a potentially beneficial turn of events.”

            Chalfant noted that Fidelity had long said it wanted to sell all its Central Oregon timberland as a package. The company had acquired the property from investors which had previously obtained control through bankruptcy proceedings of the former Crown Pacific Partners timber company.

            “Unfortunately the inherently speculative nature of development values which Fidelity associated with Skyline further complicated the transaction. Consequently, our efforts to negotiate an economically sound acquisition had stalled. As a result and given our long-term perspective, the new ownership presents a new opportunity.”

            Chalfant wrote that the Land Trust in early March had thus far had no direct contact with the new owners but had been informed by the company’s forester that , “for the time being” they plan to continue allowing the Land Trust to conduct guided hiking and biking events.

 previous post  Saturday, February 21, 2015

Massive timberland sale raises questions for Deschutes and Klamath projects

State ready to decide OSU-Cascades 4-Year campus site issues

            The issues surrounding the construction start on a new OSU-Cascades 4-year campus could be settled in late April by the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

            Truth in Site, a group opposing OSU’s selection of a west side site, filed their briefs in the case to LUBA in late February. The City of Bend and university officials are expected to do the same by the last week of March.

            The current schedule calls for a decision from LUBA by April 29, after which the losing side could take their argument to the Oregon Court of Appeals as a last resort according to state land use law.

            Truth in Site has contended that the city erred in not adequately considering traffic and parking impacts of the proposed first phase 10-acre campus site at Century Drive and SW Chandler Avenue.

            The group has also maintained that OSU should have submitted a master plan that also includes an adjacent 46 acres on which the school has said the campus could be expanded. In approving the smaller master plan a city hearing officer ruled that the university complied with existing city code.

            The additional 46 acres is a former pumice mine and OSU is assessing a geotechnical study that found the property would be suitable providing mitigation for drainage and other factors were addressed.

            OSU-Cascades had planned to admit the first class to the new campus in the Fall of 2015, but has said the appeals now mean 2016 is a more realistic target date.

            However, the university will admit 100 students for a 4-year degree program in 2015 with those students being housed at dormitories on the currently shared campus with Central Oregon Community College. 
             At present students attend two years at COCC before transferring for their junior and senior years at OSU-Cascades' classrooms at the joint campus on the southwest flank of Awbrey Butte.