Metolian resort development rights transfer debated

            “Every legislative session I’ve been in, there’s been a ‘one-off’ with land use,” .... “Like Nike....we do special things sometimes, don’t we?”

            As quoted in the Nugget newspaper of Sisters, state Rep. John Huffman’s (R-The Dalles) honest comment focused on the legislative loopholes and political give-and-take in Oregon’s 1970s land use law.

            In this case Huffman was referring to objections raised in a Sisters public meeting Aug. 29  to legislation related to the “ transfer of development opportunity” (TDO) rights that emerged after earlier legislation ended plans to build the Metolian, a planned “eco-resort” in the Metolius River Basin near Camp Sherman.

            Shane Lundgren of Camp Sherman, the original Metolian developer, has been working to find an appropriate location to exercise his state-granted TDO to build another resort.

            The original TDO legislation was enacted after Lundgren’s Metolian proposal was denied when the legislature voted to establish the Metolius Basin location as an Area of Critical State Concern, effectively ending any future plans to build resorts in the basin.

            Also affected by the land use designation was a proposal by Ponderosa Land & Cattle Co. to build a resort--that could have included a golf course--in the Green Ridge area above the Metolius River. However, Ponderosa retained the right to build a limited number of homes on larger parcels in the area.

            Jefferson County had included the proposed Metolian location in mapping areas for potential resort development, as required by the state land use law.

But the special legislation overruled  the county by designating the Area of Critical State Concern.

            The legislation prohibiting the resort and subsequent TDO legislation have both been cited as examples of how the state land use law can be manipulated--by interests on both sides of a development issue.

            The TDO legislation, HB 3313, would allow Lungren to build on land not currently designated for potential resorts in economically depressed counties with chronic high employment.

            In the Aug. 29 Sisters meeting the focus of the discussion was the possibility that the TDOs could be transferred for expansion of the existing Aspen Lakes golf community east of Sisters on Hwy 126.

            The plan could allow about 480 homes, along with nightly lodging and additional recreational facilities,  to be built on 640 acres of Cyrus family land along Camp Polk Road. There are also reportedly five other possible sites considered  by the Lundgren group.

            Previously unsuccessful proposed legislation, unrelated to the current TDO issue, would have allowed Aspen Lakes to expand under designation as a  “Cyrus Heritage Farm.”

            In additional meetings in the Sisters area the discussion has moved from specific legislation to allow TDOs to be exercised at Aspen Lakes to expanding the counties in which they could be used, including Deschutes and Jefferson, the latter in which the original Metolian Resort was proposed.

            Huffman has been sponsoring the public “work group” meetings with participation of state agencies including the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Develop, Oregon Water Resources Department and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

            As quoted recently in the Bend Bulletin, Huffman said he is not anticipating new legislation that would specifically designate the Cyrus property or other land for resort development. Instead he has now said any bill be intended to include Deschutes and Jefferson among possible county locations.

            Additional meetings on the TDO issue are expected in November.

Foreclosures on decline but still a factor

            Foreclosures and short sales that  ripped through the regional real estate market with the deepening recession have declined dramatically as a percentage of total home sales.

`           In 2010, the peak for distressed sales, foreclosures and short sales accounted for 56.73% of the 1,553 single family homes sold in the greater Bend area, which is by far the largest sub-market  in Central Oregon.

            As the housing crash began in 2008, only 7.35% of Bend area sales were in the distressed category. But in 2009 the number accelerated to 54.94% of total sales and continued above 50% until beginning to decline in 2012 when 726, or 18.17%, out of 1,902 single family homes sold were in the distressed category.

            In 2012 through late October the total of single family homes sold has already reached 2,122, with only 247, or 11.59% of those either short sales or foreclosures.

            Although seen as a positive trend, the decline in distressed sales could also be partially the result of a new state law that caused some lenders to pull back from issuing notices of default for a time.

The law was intended to encourage lenders to sit down, and ideally negotiate, with delinquent homeowners. But the voluntary nature of the statute resulted in many lenders turning from the nonjudicial path to the courts through the judicial foreclosure process, both of which are allowed in Oregon.

With a recent “fix” by the legislature, lenders are now required to negotiate with homeowners in either foreclosure method.

When most lenders were opting for nonjudicial foreclosures the process would typically take about six months from the filing of a notice of default with the intent to proceed to trustee’s sale after that period.

            In 2007, before the housing storm hit, there were only 591 notices of default recorded in all of Deschutes County. That tripled to 1,930 in 2008 and rose to 3,507 in 2009 and a high of 3,762 in 2010 before tapering off to 2,363 in 2011.

            For 2012 default notices dropped to only 797 before rising again this year  when 858 were filed through late October.

            Even with single family sales in the Bend sub-market through 10 months of 2013 more than double all of 2008 there’s still the possibility that more distressed sales are in the “shadows.”

            However, there is considerable new housing construction at the lower to lower middle market and financing is available to qualified buyers. Inventory as measured by annualized previous month-to-month sales is also low at less than 4 months.

As such, new distressed sales coming onto the market would possibly be absorbed by continued steady, barring continued dysfunction in Congress or the Federal Reserve making an abrupt about face by driving up interest rates.

           

             

Indian Summer ends with windy, snowy flourish

            So much for that earlier post of only a few days ago bragging about Bend’s string of extraordinarily  balmy Fall days.

            From the 60s on Friday, Oct. 25, Saturday morning emerged cool with blue skies before a fast moving cold front brought rain in town and snow in the high country.

            Then by Monday morning came a dusting of snow with temperatures hovering in the 30s at midday.

            The result is that inflection point among outdoor enthusiasts, with snow sports types wishing for more of the white stuff and others hoping to squeeze in another warm day fly fishing or mountain biking. 

Bend in Brief - Fall 2013

Surviving then Thriving

            At the depths of the real estate collapse Bend-based Cascade Bancorp., parent of regional Bank of the Cascades, was among many banks on federal regulators’ watch list and required an infusion of investor capital.

            But the bank now appears to have turned the corner, recently reporting positive quarterly earnings and in mid-October announcing the planned purchase of Idaho based Home Federal Bancorp.

            Cascade Bancorp will reported pay $265 million for Home Federal, Idaho’s largest bank, based in Nampa east of Boise. The bank has seven branches in Central Oregon, including four in Bend, and eight others elsewhere in Oregon as well as 11 in Idaho.

            Altogether the acquisition would give Bank of the Cascades 57 branches in Oregon and Idaho.

Tourism numbers continue a steady climb

            As indicated by lodging tax returns, Bend tourism and conference business continues on a upward path after hitting a low point in Fiscal Year 2008-09.

            For the fiscal year ending June 30 “transient room tax collections” of $3,888,069  were 10.34% above the comparable period of July through June 2012-13, and 32.5% higher thatn 2008-09.

            Looking at the lodging tax statistics for each of the past five fiscal years,

receipts increased every month year to year except for October and December of FY 2011-12 and July of FY 2012-13.

            For the past fiscal year in Bend, July had the largest tax receipts of $543,438 and November the lowest at $178,469. The largest month to month increase was in May, which rose 17.69% over the same month of FY 2011-12.

Low flow in Mirror Pond brings issues to surface

            Open most tourism publications or web sites featuring Bend and there’s a good chance you’ll discover a photo of Mirror Pond and Drake Park--often with canoeists or kayakers and the Cascades in the distance. (take a look at the opening photo of this blog).

            In recent years the there’s been a longstanding discussion (controversy? debate?) of how to address continuing silt build-up that could eventually turn this slackwater “pond” on the Deschutes River into a wetland.

            Special committees have been formed. editorials written, polls taken.  But by Fall of 2013 there’s been no firm direction as to whether to dredge again to keep the pond, create a more free flowing stream or some combination that would create a shoreline wetland.

            Another factor has been the small Pacific Power hydroelectric dam just north of the Newport Avenue bridge. The big utility concedes the power output is minimal but has not indicated if it will remove the dam, although the company is meeting with local officials.

 Complicating matters this Fall there has been a major leak that resulted in offering Bend a muddy view of what Mirror Pond would look like without the dam.  The only agreement by everyone seems to be less talk and more action.

           

COCC to build dorm on campus site

            Much of the buzz about Oregon State University’s transition to a full 4-year OSU-Cascades branch on a planned 56 acre site has overshadowed it’s current facility partner Central Oregon Community College.

            Now COCC has announced plans for a new 330-room,  dorm that would be built in a three-wind terraced configuration on the college’s current southwest corner along Mt. Washington Drive.
            The college has chosen a construction manager-general contractor approach to better define final costs, estimated to be in the range of $16-$16.4 million. The dorm is expected to be ready for occupancy of the 10 communities of 33 students each by the summer of 2015.

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Break out the cigars...it's a campus!

 

Fall 2013 - Bend weather lives up to its reputation

            Bend often gathers kudos for a reported annual 300 days of sunshine, little snow in town but much only 20 miles away at Mt. Bachelor and Spring days when you can ski in the morning and get in a round of golf before dark.

            The Fall of 2013 has brought the usual spectacular colors from turning aspen, alder, maple and other native and ornamental trees. But the weather has also been remarkable with crisp mornings in the 30s that call for a warm fleece and afternoons in the 60s, even 70s, that beg for shorts and T-shirts.

            The graphic below from a recent National Weather Service forecast says it all. Get out and enjoy the weather.