SE Bend residents upset by neighbors’ ‘eyesore’

Neighbors living on Southeast Clairaway Avenue in Bend are angry.

A property owner wants to turn a home there into a commercial site. They say the property has been an eyesore for some time, and they want the city council to do something about it.

“Everybody sees it, and it’s actually just an eyesore,” Gloria Skidgel said Wednesday.

Skidgel said the property owner has set up a storage facility for their contracting business.

The owner put four shipping containers on the front yard.

“I personally feel like the neighborhood doesn’t need that here — it doesn’t fit here,” Skidgel said Wednesday.

Skidgel said the owner doesn’t even live on the half-acre property, so a “home occupation” permit would make no sense.

The city received the complaint in October. Code enforcement officials say the property owner has been compliant during their investigation.

“Currently, his property is the only issue that is in violation, which is the home occupation, and which he again immediately submitted a application to the city for review,” Code Enforcement officer James Goff said.

The owner purchased the property in 1978, when it was in Deschutes County, not in the city.

The home occupation permit process takes about 30 days for review. Neighbors are trying to halt that until the city hears their concerns.

“The city understands the frustration with the neighbors. Unfortunately, these shipping containers are allowed” under current city regulations, Goff said.

Skidgel said she’s surprised shipping containers are allowed on residential properties.

She said they don’t want the city to approve this permit because it would only create more of a hazard for other neighbors living in the area.

“But that’s not satisfactory for us. We live here, and we don’t want it to be the way it is,” Skidgel said.

She said she believes the city is making the property fit in a home occupational zone so the problem could just go away.

NewsChannel 21 contacted the property owner, but he declined to speak to us on camera.

Skidgel and other neighbors spoke to the city council at its meeting on Wednesday night. Councilors invited the group to come to City Hall during a less formal office-hour session in January, when their concerns can be discussed in more detail and the city can explain further what steps it has and can take.