C.O. LandWatch aims to build Bend Central District vision

(Update: Comments from LandWatch planner)

Central Oregon LandWatch said Thursday it has received a $100,000 grant from Meyer Memorial Trust to continue work on the BCD Initiative, which is building broad support for policies and programs that promote the community’s vision for a vibrant, healthy, and resilient mixed-use neighborhood in the Bend Central District.

Meyer Memorial Trust awarded the two-year grant to Central Oregon LandWatch from its Healthy Environment portfolio, which engages and supports nonprofits working on a range of place-based and statewide efforts to protect and improve the environment.

“Land use planning is at the foundation of Oregon’s ability to conserve our natural resources,” said Jill Fuglister, director of Meyer Memorial Trust’s Healthy Environment portfolio. “Central Oregon LandWatch’s initiative builds resilience in the center of the rapidly growing and changing community of Bend by bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to build leadership among those who have a real stake in the future of their neighborhood.”

“Just east of downtown, yet disconnected and underutilized, the Bend Central District is an opportunity area for revitalization,” LandWatch said in Thursday’s news release.

Over the past year, the BCD Initiative formed a broad coalition of local business owners, neighborhoods, developers, and non-profits that recently succeeded in advocating for the Bend City Council to prioritize planning in this core area.

Now, the group said it will continue to build support for the community vision to have safer streets, more housing and a thriving homegrown economy in the heart of Bend.

“People can live there, they can work there,” said Moey Newbold, director of urban planning for Central Oregon LandWatch. “They can go to a restaurant on the ground floor, or they can walk to an urban park.”

So how will the grant money be used to accomplish that goal?

“To work with designers and architects to come up with different options for what type of development could go in here, versus the same types of patterns we’ve seen on Third Street for a long time,” Newbold said.

Some of the new developments include adding artwork to the Franklin Avenue corridor and improving the streetscape in the area to increase safety for those not traveling in cars.

Learn more at the BCD Initiative’s new website: http://www.bcdinitiative.org/.