Bend's growth plan passes another hurdle - More density and developer incentives

            After two years and an estimated $2 million in consulting fees, staff time and other costs the City of Bend’s latest effort to establish a long-term growth plan has been approved unanimously by the city council and is now on the way for review and action by the Deschutes County commission.

            At the conceptual heart of the state-mandated Urban Growth Boundary plan are provisions that would result in substantially increased density within the city’s current perimeter and reduce the percentage of single familty homes from 75% to 55% of the housing inventory.

            The remaining housing would be comprised of 10% single family “attached” housing, such as townhomes and condos, and 35% multi-family, or apartments.

            Altogether the plan envisions 13,000 new housing units by 2028 with approximately 2,300 acres brought into the city.

            The current plan has been in the works since the Oregon Land Use and Development Commission “remanded” a 2008 plan that would have added about 8,000 acres to the city. The LCDC said the earlier plan did not include sufficient development on available land already within the city boundary.  

            To pave the way for additional multi-family construction the council at its Sept 21 session passed an ordinance that would allow builders to defer system development charges (SDCs) until a certificat of occupancy is issued.

 Previous UGB posts

• Bend Urban Growth Boundary 

The decades-old quest is over: OSU Cascades now a 4-year university

            Bend was seeing orange and Benny the Beaver was on the loose this week as OSU Cascades unveiled the first completed building of its new four-year campus.

            Even rival Ducks were giving a round of applause for the first new university offering freshman to senior classes to open in the state in 50 years.

            The Duck-Beaver alliance, albeit maybe a temporary truce, was highlighted at a Sept. 13 open house by Amy Tykeson whose “family of Ducks” donation of $1 million was instrumental in construction of what is now Tykeson Hall academic building.

Benny holds court - photo Lee Hicks

            OSU president Ed Ray joined vice president Becky Johnson who heads the Bend campus in thanking a range of participants including legislators and Gov. Kate Brown, who also attended, for bringing the long-held dream to reality.

            Ray noted Bend’s continued growth and emphasized that it is no longer the only city of its size in the state without a four-year university.

            He predicted OSU-Cascades could contribute more than $100 million to the Bend regional economy in the next 10 years.

            But Ray also recalled the effort was, “not without its challenges,” alluding to some local opposition to the site selection, including a lawsuit that ended favorably for the university in the Oregon Court of Appeals. Opponents had claimed they supported a four-year campus but did not want it on Bend’s west side, citing lack of parking and increased traffic as issues.

Tykeson Hall open house - photo Lee Hicks

            Johnson emphasized the substantial community support that helped convince state college officials and the legislature that Bend was ready for the campus. An initial fund raising call for $1 million to show local backing instead brought in $1.6 million, she said.

            State Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, observed that the campus opening was “decades in the making...it’s the last missing asset to make our great city an even greater city.”

            Also now under construction on the 10-acre first phase at the intersection of NW Chandler and NW Century Drive are a 300- student residence hall and dining facility, expected to be ready for the Winter term beginning in January.

            The university expects about 1,200 students this fall with enrollment potentially increasing to between 3,000 to 5,000 by 2025 as it expands onto an additional 46 acre site adjacent to the present campus. That site is a former pumice mine which the university purchased for just under $8 million earlier this year after extensive due diligence regarding environmental, soil stability and other issues.

            Also being considered for expansion is another 76-acre site owned by Deschutes County to the north of the pumice mine that has been used as a landfill for construction and other material. The university has executed a non-binding letter of intent with the county that allows it to explore the site over a two-year period.            

        

Residence & Dining Hall - photo Lee Hicks

Until opening of the new campus OSU-Cascades has functioned under a partnership with Central Oregon Community Collge in which the unversity leased spaced on the COCC campus. The unversity offered junior and senior year undergraduate instruction as well as master’s degrees, with many students migrating to OSU-Cascades after completing courses at the two-year community college.

            Among its academic programs the university recently announced a first in the state hospitality management degree that officials say will support the area’s booming tourism economy. That initiative received a boost with a $500,000 endowment for a department position by the Baney family, which controls the Oxford Hotel group including the boutique namesake downtown Bend hotel and others in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.

            The school also offers undergraduate majors programs related to computer science, natural resources, tourism and outdoor leadership, business and energy systems engineering. Masters degrees include creative writing, teaching and mental health counseling, among others.

            Until the residence hall is completed some students will continue to live in leased space at the COCC campus and at private housing throughout the community.

Previous posts on OSU-Cascades

 bendisbetter.blogspot.com/search/label/OSU 4-Year Campus

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Bend Briefs - Tourism, small-town thinking? and Mirror Pond dredging

Mixed opinions on growth, tourism and the economy?

           

            Is Bend’s success as a major tourism destination breeding a backlash from some who had rather have the region the way it was before a new wave of “discovery.”

            The balance between Bend’s- and by extension the region’s-tourist popularity and the livability some permanent residents think is being threatened prompted a Bend City Club-sponsored forum a few weeks ago.

            According to reports from Visit Bend and other sources, at a given time in the summer there could be 20,000 visitors in town, and more than 2.5 million during 2015. Room tax revenues have increased by nearly 20% in each of the past three years. Total tourist expenditures reached nearly $700 million in 2015 by one reported estimate.

            With the tourism boom some locals complain of increased traffic, misbehaving visitors, lack of parking and stress on the city’s aging streets. But others point out the substantial benefits to the local economy and argue that a marketing message to visitors to act “like a local” might be one approach to the issue.

            But the passing of a small-town feel that some longtime residents lament is as much the natural growth of newcomers that are here to stay, including retirees and vacation homeowners.

            Bend’s reputation has for some time attracted attention. Only a few years ago, a “don’t Bendify Bend,” campaign emerged in Washington’s wine and wheat center of Walla Walla when a major housing project was on the planning table.

Is it time for Bend to graduate from small-town government?

            Along with tourism issues prompting local discussion, Bend’s outgoing Mayor Bill Clinton weighs in with the possibility that the city has outgrown its small-town government structure.

            In parting observations announcing he would not seek another term, Clinton said that Bend, “...is stuck with inadequate revenues and a small-town governance structure. Paying councilors $200 per month for what should be an almost full-time job and not having an elected mayor are absurdly disconnected from the reality of being a modern city.”

            Clinton has served on the city council since election in 2004 and has been voted by fellow councilors to serve two-year mayoral terms in 2013 and 2015.

            In an interview with The Source weekly, Clinton said, “It’s the small-town thinking that contiunues to hold Bend back.”

            Addressing streets as a major infrastructure concern, Clinton offered that, “It’s not possible to find in the existing budget the money to keep the roads fixed properly.” Among obstacles Clinton also cited physical limitations on widening existing streets. Instead, he stressed that more effort should be put into encouraging public transportation, biking and pedestrian friendly sidewalks to reduce reliance on driving.

           

Dredging Mirror Pond back on the table

            It appears that the protracted debate on how to manage silt problems on Mirror Pond in Bend will go full circle back to past solutions involving dredging the slackwater stretch of the Deschutes through the center of town.

Mirror Pond in early Summer - photo by Lee Hicks

            The Bend’s Parks and Recreation District and Mirror Pond Partners LLC, comprised of developer Bill Smith and construction executive Todd Taylor have agreed in principle to a plan that would have the private LLC dredge the stretch of river. In turn, the P&R district would develop a plan to maintain deteriorating banks and other problems along the pond.

            Mirror Pond Partners LLC purchased the land under the river a few years ago with the announced intent of keeping the pond mostly as it is. But the LLC and parks district had been working on a plan that would also have involved buying the aging Pacific General Electric powerhouse and dam that backs up the river.

            However, PGE recently announced it would keep the dam, leading to a new proposed agreement between the LLC and parks entity.

            Some river enthusiasts had hoped that purchasing the dam might have provided a way to allow boating passage downriver if all or a part of the dam were removed while retaining the pond features. Also considered was the possiblity of redeveloping some of the riverfront into commercial, retail and residential space.