OSU-Cascades wins another round – but fight not over

The battle over the OSU-Cascades four-year campus on Bend’s Westside may be coming to an end — or maybe not.

“We’re in the business of education. and we know that this community wants to have a four-year university,” OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson said Tuesday after a state appeals board upheld the city’s approval.. “It’s very exciting to think that now we can start focusing on that aspect instead of the legal challenges.”

But Scott Morgan of the Truth in Site Coalition told NewsChannel 21 Tuesday night his group is prepared to appeal once again, this time to the state Court of Appeals, and that OSU-Cascades is trying to shift the conversation from land use to education.

“They can’t answer the tough questions about the un-feasability of the Westside location,” Morgan said. “So instead of answering the hard questions, they’ve tried to spin this into something that it’s not, that if you’re not for the west side campus, then you’re against higher education in Central Oregon.”

Johnson though, firmly believes the Westside is the ideal fit for the campus.

“The other locations that people are talking about are not things that can be developed in the same amount of time and for the same amount of money that this location can be developed,” Johnson said — likely to take a decade or longer.

The next step for OSU-Cascades is to file for a building permit, so they can begin to break ground.

As for Truth in Site, they have 21 days to file their expected appeal to the state Court of Appeals.

The LUBA decision dated Monday “makes it possible for OSU-Cascades to welcome students to the region’s long-awaited four-year university campus during the 2016-2017 academic year,” the school said after receiving the 31-page ruling that rejects all seven challenges, or “assignments of error,” to the city’s approval.

“This represents a victory for higher education in Central Oregon and is particularly significant for our current and future students,” Johnson said. “We will build a Westside campus that integrates well within the community.”

While OSU-Cascades will welcome its first freshman class this September, groundbreaking for the new campus has been delayed by more than a year after opponents filed appeals of the hearings officer decision to the city council, which upheld the approval, then to LUBA.

The school noted that “since 2013, more than 3,500 Central Oregon residents have attended public and civic meetings focused on the campus. Hundreds have shared ideas and advice at those meetings or through their participation in OSU-Cascades advisory groups.”

“As we move to the next step, we will continue to invite and address the public’s thoughts and concerns,” Johnson said. “We are grateful for the support and work of so many people who helped us get to this point, including the Bend City Council and city staff, our Central Oregon legislators, community members and the Campus Expansion Advisory Committee volunteers.”

One of the seven challenge elements, called “assignments of error,” focused on the schools’ arrangement for a potential expansion to a former pumice mine to the north.

“While there is evidence in the record that supports a conclusion that OSU eventually plans to develop a larger campus than the 10.44-acre proposal, we agree with respondents (the city) that the city’s interpretation of the word ‘project’ as used in (the Bend Development Code)” in proper fashion to limit the “project “that an applicant controls,” the appeals board ruled.

They also agreed with the city that the city council’s interpretation of its code, that a master plan is only required “when a proposal includes a land division.”

Oregon LUBA ruling on OSU-Cascades campus (Adobe PDF document)