YIMBY or NIMBY?: the debate over density ramps up in Bend

            A proposed new apartment complex for Bend’s westside is shaping up to incite what  could be a NIMBY uprising, and might also be a test of the city’s state-mandated and approved plan to provide more density within existing urban boundaries.

            On an approximately 3-acre site along Shevlin Hixon Drive and Colorado Boulevard, Seattle-based Evergreen Hounsing Development Group has started pre-application community discussions for construction of about 180 units in four floors with about  200 parking spaces.

            Word of the plan immediately mobilized a group of opposing residents who claim the scale is not appropriate for the site, which is immediately south of the city’s Pavilion recreation facility and would rise above the street bordering McKay Park and the whitewater park on the Deschutes River.

Evergreen Housing proposed apartments

            A local Facebook site “Bend YIMBY” (yes in my back yard) with a website, www.bendyimby.com, has already gathered followers who largely take issue with other residents who they say adopt a NIMBY position of that’s fine but “not in my back yard.”

            Evergeen recently developed the 205-unit Outlook at Pilot Butte and sold the Pilot Butte Commons, 204 units in the same area off Highway 20 on the city’s east side. The company also has an extensive track record of other higher-end rental housing in Seattle, Eugene and the Tri-Cities area of Washington.

Bend westside zoning for proposed apartments

            Meeting recently with neighborhood residents, Andrew Brand, executive director of development for Evergreen, said one concern over traffic could be misplaced, maintaining that additional impacts at area intersections would not be in, “a worse state than they are right now,” according to quoted remarks in the Bend Bulletin.

            However, neighbors attending the meeting have argued the 4-story complex would result in parking spilling over to city streets beyond the 25 off-street spaces in the company’s initial plans.

            But Brand countered that the location is conducive to more pedestrian traffic to amenities such as shops of the Old Mill District and even downtown Bend. The fact that about a third of the units would be studios would also reduce occupancy and limit additional vehicles, Brand noted in the Bulletin’s report. The property is currently zoned for MR or mixed riverfront.

Zoning legend-from December 2016 city data

            Evergreen’s proposed project is approximately a half-mile from another proposed mixed use complex with apartments on the site of the former Ray’s grocery. The store was vacant when snows in January of 2017 collapsed the roof and the new owner demolished the building.

            The Eugene-based owner, Forum Westside LLC,  and its development consultant, deChase Miksis, are in early discussion stages of a five-story project with 200 apartment units over retail space. Under that plan the property would be rezoned from general commercial to mixed-urban.

            Thus far the proposal has not aroused the degree of opposition that has emerged with the waterfront park neighborhood project.

            On the Facebook page, Bend YIMBY, one member with frequent posts called for like-minded residents to, “Write city council to support everything on the table that favors housing, including the comp plan/zoning map.”

            He also urged readers to invite others to the Facebook group; write a post for the website, “about denser develpment being more environmentally friendly..,” and called for a March meeting.

            The Bend YIMBY website says its backers are,”a group dedicated to fixing Bend’s housing crisis.”
            Citing low rental vacancy rates, the site says, “even if you have the money, a good job and good references, it can be tough to find a place to live.” 

Was NIMBY at play in university location opposition

            To some observers, the proposed waterfront park area apartments recalls a heated debate that swirled around development of the new OSU-Cascades 4-year campus along Century Drive, within a mile away.

            In that case opponents, organized as Truth in Site, were rebuffed when they carried their opposition to the state Land Use Appeals Board and the state Court of Appeals after Bend officials and a hearing officer approved the campus location.

            Much of that opposition was reportedly from neighboring residents of communities such as the Broken Top golf neighborhood to the west of the campus who feared additional traffic congestion.

            In a 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting forum before the university was approved, a self-described public relations spokesman for opponents said the west side location would result in “plopping themselves at the intersection of fun” along Century Drive leading to Mt. Bachelor and other recreation venues.

            To that statement OPB’s moderator, Dave Miller, asked if he would rather, “go to the intersection of sadness and loneliness?”

            Although the university has attemped to mitigate vehicle congestion with a shuttle service and bike and ride sharing programs, some of the opponents’ arguments have been confirmed by parking impacts along the campus perimeter.

Bend's east side already home to large multi-family projects

            The current debate over high-density residential on Bend’s westside, loosely defined by the areas west of the 3^rd Street/Highway 97 north-south corridor or the Deschutes River in other places, might garner scant sympathy from some on the city’s east side.

            Objections to Evergreen Housing’s 205-unit Pilot Butte project raised some concerns that it would create more traffic in an already dense multi-family and commercial area and was too close to Pilot Butte State Park. But the project met city comprehensive plan and zoning standards.

            Another 150-unit eastside apartment project along NE Bellevue Drive completed in 2016 between Worthy Brewing and an existing single family neighborhood to the north promped objections from residents who have seen their backyard fences abutting parking stalls and dumpsters behind the 4-story building.

            They also complain that narrow streets with parking on both sides in the nearby commercial and retail area were barely wide enough for two passing cars, even before the new apartments. The area is also just east across busy 27^th Street from the Forum Shopping Center, which includes Barnes & Noble, Costco, Safeway, Old Navy, Whole Foods and other national and local retailers.

            A resident of the single family subdivision, Arrowhead Acres, said that city officials were unreceptive to residents who complained that the apartments would adversely  affect their properties.

            She also said the city informed residents that the streets, one of which runs along the north side of Worthy Brewing and south of the apartment complex, were privately maintained and not the city’s responsiblity.

            Now with the complex occupied more than a year the homeowner says traffic and speeding have increased in the neighborhood, along with many more people walking the area, including more smokers and those not cleaing up after dogs.

            The homeowners association has frequently contacted apartment management with concerns, she adds.

            As for the East-West divide, she notes, “I cannot tell you how they (West side residents complaining of new apartments) are perceived and spoken about over here on the East Side...not just (my) neighbors – but even in the checkout line at Safeway!!”