After months of complaints regarding noise and parking
impacts, among other issues, the Bend City Council has approved regulations
tightening vacation rental requirements in residential neighborhoods.
New rentals will need to be spaced at least 250 feet from
the property lines of another rental, but existing rentals are in effect
“grandfathered” from that requirement.
The city will require a fee of $1,749 for new rental
permits, a big increase from the previous $454. The process will also now
involve public notices to neighbors and a more extensive review by city staff.
Vacation rentals in commercial areas will not be subject
to the 250 foot separation requirement. The fee for those will increase from
$454 to $558.
An existing city regulation
requires vacation rental operators to pay a transient lodging tax.
The new ordinance also sets occupancy limits based on the
size of the property; requires a property be rented at least once in a 12-month
period; allows a license to be transferred in the case of death or divorce; and
requires that owners comply with a “good neighbor policy.”
The 250-foot separation rule would not apply to owners who
rent their properties for fewer than 29 days.
http://bendoregon.gov/index.aspx?page=1281
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Hotel developer looking at city-owned
site
Could
the third time be a charm?
A
Springfield based hotel development and management company is considering
buying a 3.1 acre site on the north edge of Bend’s downtown core, the third
prospective buyer to eye the property in recent months.
InnSight
Hotel Management Group is reported to be in a 90-day due diligence period to
determine feasibility for a potential 100-120 room hotel, additional living
units and retail space for the site at Olney Avenue and Wall Street across from
Pioneer Park.
The
current asking price is $2.28 million, the same as last month when another
hotel company looked at the property but ended talks with the city, according
to a report in the Bend Bulletin.
InSight’s
portofolio includes about a dozen hotels in Oregon and one in Burlington,
Washington, with brand affiliations that include Marriott and Holiday Inn, according to the company's web site.
Another
developer, Getz Properties, which developed the Forum shopping area in east Bend,
offered $1.9 million for the site in early 2014 but decided not to proceed due to
traffic and access concerns, it was reported.
The
property is the original Bend Bulletin site, which the newspaper occupied from 1966
to 2000 and traded to Brooks Resources for it’s current location on NW
Chandler Avenue. Developer Jeff Pickardt and Todd Taylor later acquired the
property and sold it to the city for $4.78 million in 2005, as real estate
values were escalating.
Another option proposed for Mirror Pond
The Tumalo Irrigation District has stepped into the
discussion of how to solve problems created by continued silt buildup in Bend’s
cherished Mirror Pond section of the Deschutes River.
A district official says it is considering a way to
acquire and upgrade the existing Newport Avenue dam, owned by utility PacificCorp,
and continue to generate electricity as a district revenue source.
The plan would also involve changes to the district’s
existing water intake system including ending a diversion from Tumalo Creek
near Shevlin Park and another downstream of the Newport dam. A new single
diversion would be built at the dam.
The result could improve flows in the middle Deschutes
River and enhance fish habitat by adding colder water from Tumalo Creek to the
Deschutes below Bend, the district believes. By giving up the Tumalo Creek
diversion the irrigation district would need to acquire additional water rights
from the Deschutes.
It’s not clear how the district’s plan would address
passage for fish and boaters around the dam. That issue has been at the top of
discussions by a committee of city and volunteer community members on improving flows and
limiting silt in the stretch of the river.
An leading option in the city-community process has been
to buy the dam, remove it, and redevelop the area around the nearby substation
as well as other city-owned parking lot property near Drake Park. That plan
would involve keeping the appearance of Mirror Pond while also allowing fish
and boater passage below the stillwater stretch.
