Note: This post first appeared as a guest column in The Bend Bulletin, April 14, 2024. Photos of the projects mentioned have been added.
Bend elected officials and city administrators
all say they’re working diligently to create more housing in what is in the top
tier of Oregon’s fastest growing cities.
Now a proposal for new multi-family housing in the middle of a single family
neighborhood is bringing to a head some of the arguments that swirl around
where new housing should be built. It has also highlighted deficiencies in the
Bend Development Code that could allow units thought to be for apartment
rentals to be individual condos or nightly rentals - even before a building is
occupied.
At first glance the opposition to the proposed Compass Corner mixed-use project
at the north end of NW Awbrey Road might be dismissed as a typical NIMBY
attitude of nearby residents. And a resident presenting himself as leader of a
stated housing activist group, Bend YIMBY, has spoken in favor of the project.
The project is proposed as a four-story structure with 40 plus apartment units and
a lower floor of “Convenience Commercial.” Nearby residents of single family homes are
opposed to the building scale and design aesthetics covering most of a 1.02
acre site. These objections are not considered factors in city planners’
interpretation of the BDC, which is weighted heavily to encourage more dense
housing.
But a greater concern with the Compass Corner project is that the code allows
them to be transitioned from permanent apartment housing to a wide variety of
lodging—including short term rentals.
 |
| Compass Corner aerial illustration |
This possibility emerged in the city planning department review of the Compass Corner proposal that responded to several of more than 250 opposing comments prior to a public hearing April 4.
The planning staff final report and recommendations emphasizes that the developer could complete apartment units, then apply to change the use to lodging by filing a “Change of Occupancy” request with the city’s Building Safety Division.
Is it possible the developer, whose principals already are Bend hotel owners, might take this opportunity? Although a representative has said this is not the intent, it remains a possibility. What would this do to create permanent apartment housing if that happens?
And the implications of Compass Corner extend across the city.
Consider the more than 300 units now under construction as the Jackstraw project along NW Arizona south of downtown, and another 246 permitted in the Everpine complex nearby to the south of there. What would be the impacts if the same standard applied to Compass Corner is used for those much larger projects?
 |
| Jackstraw under construction |
Several Bend Bulletin articles describing Jackstraw and Everpine have referred to them as apartments for the rental market. This is the impression left with much of the public.
However, city planners note that the different zoning classifications for Compass Corner, compared to Jackstraw and Everpine, nevertheless permit individual ownership of “residential units” in that each provides for mixed residential and commercial uses.
. This loophole in the BDC runs counter to any effort by the City of Bend to ensure projects expected to be full time residential apartment units will remain as such. It opens the way for a patchwork of nightly lodging interspersed with permanent housing throughout various zones within the city.
One step could be a code amendment that requires development applications to clearly define the “residential” use after construction. If the use is for apartment housing then the project should be restricted to apartment rentals for a defined number of years.
A code that is open to ambiguous interpretations and provisions conflicting with city objectives is a rocky path to achieve more housing at the expense of wider public support.
This is an opportune moment for planners and the City Council to add clarity to a development code that has apparently had conflicting and unintended consequences for Bend housing goals.
Any housing, any place, at any time with few restraints is not workable for the future.
Lee Hicks is a resident of Bend, and a former wire service, weekly and daily newspaper journalist and newspaper owner- publisher.
