Bend-La Pine Schools drop Troy Field zone change request

A month after Bend city councilors granted Bend-La Pine Schools a one-month delay in an expected vote to reject a zoning change for Troy Field, the school district said Tuesday it is withdrawing its application, thus avoiding what earlier threatened to become a costly, public legal battle over the field’s fate.

A letter sent Tuesday by school district attorney Sharon Smith to City Attorney Mary Winters said they were withdrawing the application to remove the “public facilities” designation from the parcel, sought so that a Portland developer could build a hotel there after paying $1.9 million for the parcel.

The city has removed from Wednesday night’s council agenda an item to adopt formal findings backing the early March 4-2 council vote to reject the zoning change. That could have led to a school district appeal to the state Land Use Board of Appeals.

However, the fate of the school district’s deal with Portland-based Brownstone Development — and of the field many were asking to preserve — is still unclear.

School district spokeswoman Julianne Repman noted that while the original sales agreement was contingent upon removing that public facilities designation, “the buyer has since agreed to move forward with their due diligence with the public facilities designation in place.” They have until July 6 to complete that step, she said.

Smith’s letter refers to that due diligence and said the school board and district “appreciate that they, and their city partners, share the same goals of delivering public services to our community in a fiscally responsible manner.”

“We believe the withdrawal of the application … will provide the most options to the involved parties,” Smith wrote.

So what could happen if the sale goes ahead? Repman said, “They could build something allowable under the PF designation.” What that might be, and whether it would pass muster with the city is anything but clear at this point.