OSU-Cascades 4-Year campus a step closer

            Break out the Beaver booster paraphernalia... Bend is looking more orange.     

Backers of the quest to build a 4-year campus for Oregon State University in Bend crossed another milestone at the start of September when a hearing officer upheld the City of Bend’s approval of the project’s first phase.

In his 94-page decision, hearing officer Kenneth Helm found that OSU’s application to begin a campus on a 10.44-acre parcel bordered by Century Drive and Chandler Avenue complied with the existing city development code. Nearly all the site is zoned for limited commercial use.

Although establishing nearly 30 conditions, many of them routine, for the city to address, Helm didn’t agree with opponents arguments that parking issues were inadequately addressed, or that a master plan for future phases should have been part of the initial application for the first phase of development.

Aerial of 10.44 acre first phase

Instead, Helm said the university’s parking plan, which assumes considerable bike, pedestrian and bus transportation, met the code requirements, although he noted the code lacks a clear definition of what constitutes an adequate plan. The application stipulates 300 parking spaces for the site, which the university says could accommodate a maximum of 1,960 students.

The hearing officer also determined city code did not mandate submission of an expanded master plan that would include an adjacent 46-acre site the university is considering but has yet to purchase. Opponents have said the 46-acres should be included in the initial application.

But Helm acknowledged, “the frustration of TSC (Truth in Site Coalition opponents) and other concerned neighbors with the seemingly piecemeal way that OSU is moving forward with the OSU Cascades project.”

OSU’s approach, Helm said, “comes very close to thwarting” intent of city master plan provisions that strive to create integrated mixed use neighborhoods, minimize traffic congestion, reduce urban sprawl and deter environmental damage.

Helm wrote that OSU could have asked 4-R Equipment LLC,  owner of the 46 acre parcel, to participate in a non-binding conceptual plan for that potential part of the campus.

“However, there is no evidence that the applicant made such an effort,” he concluded.

TSC could file an appeal within an approximate two week period, but a spokesman was quoted in local media as saying no decision had been made.

In a statement issued after the decision was released, OSU-Cascades president Becky Johnson said, “We appreciate the city’s and Mr. Helm’s thorough review of our application, as well as the extensive community input regarding the site plan.”

The Truth in Site opponents have maintained that the 1,500 acre Juniper Ridge property on the city’s northern edge, and owned by the city,  would be a more appropriate site for the new campus and would create less impact on existing neighborhoods.

However, those favoring the current site say infrastructure cost for Juniper Ridge would be prohibitive and it would be too removed from retail, entertainment, transportation and other amentites to attract students.

            OSU's statement said the first phase of the new 4-year campus is expected to open for undergraduate students in Fall of 2016. The 4-year program will admit freshmen in Fall of 2015 with some attending classes at Cascades Hall on the current joint Central Oregon Community College-OSU campus off Mt. Washington Drive several miles to the north.

Others would be accommodated at the Graduate and Research Center in existing space the university leases along  SW Columbia Street west of  Riverfront Park on the Deschutes River.

When complete the new 4-year university is expected to have a maximum of 5,000 students, including the nearly 2,000 in the first phase, and other when the expansion site is determined.

Larger lot project proposed for Bend's west side urban-rural interface

            The development team that created Bend’s highly-successful Northwest Crossing is joining another landowner to create a low-density community on more than 500 acres on the city's west-side boundary.

            Known as The Tree Farm on the Deschutes County land use application, the project brings together members of the Miller Lumber Co. family, the owners of the property, and West Bend Property Company LLC, an equal partnership of Tennant Family Limited Partnership and Brooks Resources.

            West Bend Property launched Northwest Crossing in the early 2000s as a master-planned “traditional neighborhood” that now includes single family and town home residences, parks, a retail and office area, schools and pedestrian trails.

Most Northwest Crossing lots are less than 6,000 square feet with a few larger ones of more than 8,000, or about one-quarter acre. The Northwest Crossing master plan allows for up to approximately 1,100 homes on 483 acres, including 200 now proposed for a 93 acre parcel across Mt. Washington Drive from the original development envelope.

            In an application for conditional use permits to Deschutes County, the Tree Farm developers outlined plans for 50 homes, each on about 2 acres, in five clusters of 10 homes each. Each of the five clusters would have a minimum of 81 acres of open space, or more than 400 total in the approximately 533-acre project.

Transect model from Center for Applied Transect Studies

            The concept, developers have said, is to create a community that provides a buffer between more rural land adjacent to an urban neighborhood,

            In comments to local media, the project director Romy Mortensen was quoted that the Tree Farm would be developed along an urban “transect” model to provide a transition between more dense city areas, such as Northwest Crossing, and land where “urbanization onto parks and other public lands seems highly unlikely.”

            A proponent of the rural-to-urban transect is Andres Duany, a principal in the Miami and Washington, DC urban planning firm, Duany Platy-Zyberk. The firm web site www.dpz.com notes that it has been in the forefront of “the New Urbanism movement with innovative techniques to combat urban sprawl.”

Tree Farm tentative master plan

            The Tree Farm property lies mostly in the county’s urban area reserve zone that allows 10 acre lots in areas next to urban boundaries. An example of this is the Highlands at Broken Top community adjacent to the Tetherow golf course and resort community across Skyliners Road from the proposed project.

Homes the Tree Farm would be on the northern edge of the property line, away from Skyliners Road to the south and Shevlin Park to the west according to the development application.     

            The Tree Farm would not be gated and would offer protected open space with public access adjoining Shevlin Park to the east, the developers have said.

            In an  Aug. 20 e-mail on file with the county, a planning official wrote that a hearing date for the project had been tentatively scheduled for Oct. 7, although a final date would be announced after comments from various agencies and the public have been received.

Bend-Deschutes housing continues in federal top 10 appreciation

         After anchoring the bottom of national housing appreciation statistics eight years ago the greater Bend real estate market is maintaining its position in the top 10 as measured by the Federal Housing Finance Administration.

         In its latest statistical report, FHFA ranked Bend No. 8 in appreciation among 276 MSAs tracked with a 12-month increase of 18.99%. For the second quarter of 2014 Bend housing rose 4.61% year-to-year, and in the past five years 6.61%.

         At one point during the super-heated market of 2006 Bend was No. 1 each quarter in FHFA appreciation rankings, before slipping to No. 7 in the first quarter of 2007. By the end of 2009 the Bend MSA – including Deschutes County –was dead last among 299 MSAs tracked at that time with a 20.55% loss in home values.  

         Bend continued to bounce along the bottom among all MSAs and at the end of 2009 grabbed the dubious distinction of passing the Las Vegas area as the worst market in the country. It held that position until being barely edged aside for the bottom spot in the 3rd quarter of 2010 by the Daytona Beach area of Florida.

For that quarter, the last one reported through early 2011 by the federal agency, Bend was 298 among 299 MSAs with a one-year negative appreciation of -13.73% and -24.35% for the previous five years.

Out of the weeds and dust - a housing recovery

Only a couple of years ago Obsidian Heights as it’s known was a dusty, weed-choked stalled subdivision complete with streets, curbs and other infrastructure--but waiting for any sign of a market pulse.           

Now the community on the east side of busy NE 27^th Street just to the north across from Mountain View High School is one of the more notable examples of Bend’s housing market revival.

In less than 18 months 45 homes have been built and sold-- many before completion, at prices from $158,020 to $274,399, in sizes from 1,200 to 2,470 square feet.

And many sold at more than the listing price, resulting in a sale to listing price percentage of 100.88%.

Obsidian Heights is among many examples of home builders and land investors who have acted to meet substantial demand for new housing throughout the region. In some cases investors acquired land at deeply-distressed prices--either from banks that had foreclosed or other groups that could not hang on until the market turned.

And in one case, Central Oregon’s formerly top builder has reemerged as a major factor in construction and sale of new homes after surviving hard times and losing some projects to its lenders.

Obsidian Heights is a project of Hayden Homes, by far the largest homebuilder in Central Oregon. The Multiple Listing Service of Central Oregon database shows that since January 1, 2011 through August 27, 2014 Hayden has sold 553 homes at a median price of $189,625 for total sales volume of $104,742,443.

A Hayden Home in Obsidian Heights

Of those sales, 469 came after January 1, 2012 and the median price rose to $194,990. From January of 2013 through August of 2014, Hayden’s median price had risen to $205,152 for 333 sales.

Hayden’s total sales volume in the approximately 20 months since January of 2013 exceeded $68 million, more than two-thirds of the volume for the 44 months since January of 2011. In only eight months of 2014 the volume was more than $32 million, 30% of the total for the past three years and eight months.

With the accelerating number of sales, demand continued to drive up Hayden’s median price to $214,458, compared to  $250,000 for single famly sales on less than an acre in all of Central Oregon and $289,900 in the greater Bend sub-market.

Although Hayden has a large market share in Central Oregon, similar stories of weed-to-lawn subdivision revivals have been repeated throughout the region.

Among the most active participants in acquisition of previously-troubled bare land developments has been a joint venture involving California Republican Congressman Gary Miller.

Beginning in August of 2009 as the market had crumbled Long Term Bend Investors LLC - Miller’s Group -- purchased 17 lots for $450,000, or $26,740 per unit, from Liberty Bank  in the failing Crosswinds project along Reed Market Road east of Hwy 97.

That purchase was followed by  44 lots in a project known as Laurel Springs for $728,000 from Badger Partners LLC, or only $16,545 per unit.

Another major acquisition from lender Bank of the Cascades  by Long Term Investors was 117 lots in Fieldstone Crossing in Redmond for $2 million -- approximately $17,000 per lot. In that project, Long Term has partnered with builder Signature Home Builders LLC in construction of 18 homes in 2014 that were actively listed in a range of $209,900 to $339,900 as of late August 2014, but there had been no sales recorded.

Fieldstone Crossing was begun by Pahlisch Homebuilders, once the region’s leading builder until it shrank to only a few completions in the market slump. Now Pahlish partnerships are active again.

In 2013 and 2014 through August 28, the regional MLS shows that Pahlisch has built and sold  179 single family homes throught the region in prices ranging from $186,600 for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1,143 square foot home in southeast Bend to a 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath, 3,761 square foot one in Shevlin Ridge on the city’s northwest edge at $765,000.

In that period, Pahlisch has also built and sold 46 townhome and condo homes, starting at $194,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1,450 square foot unit in McCall landing of northest Bend, to a luxury 4 bedroom 3.5 bath, 3,075 home in Deschutes Landing along the Deschutes River trail immediately southof the Old Mill District.

Throughout Central Oregon the MLS database indicates that since January 1, 2013 through August 27, 2014 there were 990 sales of new homes--single family and townhomes/condos--that were built in 2013 or 2014, out of 8,097 sales during the period, or 12.27%.

But the percentage was higher in the bustling Bend sub-market, where 784 sales out of 4,545, or 17.25% were newly constructed homes.

Bend housing market maintaining steady pace

Back to the process: Bend UGB effort restarted

            The City of Bend is ramping up another attempt to fashion a long-delayed Urban Growth Boundary plan that will address how much land, and where, will be needed to accommodate growth in a 20-year period extending through 2028.

            The effort follows a state agency’s “remand” for revisions to an earlier plan submitted in 2008 by the city to comply with Oregon’s land use Goal 14, intended to guide urban expansion throughout the state. Any city of more than 25,000 must update it's comprehensive plan to comply.

            At the outset of the process the city forecasts that Bend’s population will have grown by more than 30,000, to more than 115,000 residents, with another 20,000 new employees, by the end of the plan period.

            In August the city began assembling “technical advisory committees” (TACs) to work on issues related to land needed for residential housing, for employment growth and how the urban boundary should be expanded to meet those requirements.

             Also involved in the process are outside consultants who will use a software-based  tool, Envision Tomorrow, to analyze options for future building  and locations.

The program involves a “prototype builder,” to analyze return on investment of various developments given current markets, land use regulations, and impacts of parking, building height, construction costs, rents. As one example, consultants say the program could be used to determine feasibility of such development as mixed-use retail with housing.

The other “scenario builder” component would design a “library of buildings” identified in the prototype building phase and create a “painted landscape” of the possibilities. The program would then evaluate different scenarios by critreria the city  defines such as impact on land use, housing, sustainability, transportation and the economy.

In remanding the original plan to the city for revision, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development emphasized it had not adquately  addressed the potential for using available land already in the UGB, or potential infill property, to meet 20-year needs.

Under the current schedule published by the city, the final plan would be completed in April of 2016, only 12 years before the intended 20-year goal of 2028. 

Broken down by phases, the process involves:

·        Phase 1: establishing the methods and policy direction by February of 2015;

·        Phase 2:  completion of growth scenarios and a proposed new UGB beginning in January of 2015;

·        Phase 3: adoption and implementation beginning in November of 2015 and concluding in April of 2016.

The Phase 2 work will rely on the Envison Tomorrow program to test ideas and land use options and “narrow down the universe of boundary and infill scenarios into four competing infill and expansion scenarios that are all legal and meet the requiremnts of the Remand Order...”, according to a memo to city staff from the consulting group.

From that point, there will be additional analysis of the scenarios in relation to city service capabilities including water and sewer facilities, stormwater system and transportation.