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.
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.
