Bend council OKs big SE housing project – with a catch

The Bend City Council dealt with a variety of topics familiar in a fast-growing city Wednesday night, approving a 216-lot housing development in the southeast part of town, though rejecting on a 4-3 vote the developer’s request for a slight miss on the 10 percent open-space requirement due to the 48-acre property.

The J.L. Ward Co.’s Shilo master-planned development intends to build 216 single-family homes off of Country Club Drive. Included in the development is a 2.3-acre park and .08 acres of trails.

The president of the company, Jody Ward, widow of long-time southern Bend developer Jan Ward, told NewsChannel 21 there’s a big need for homes in Bend, as everyone knows, and they want to help provide a space for people to live.

“We have a long history in Bend, and we have been developers since we built our first house in 1963 in Bend in the west hills, and then we developed a lot of land of the southeast part of Bend,” said Ward, ticking off their names: Tillicum Village, Timber Ridge, Nottingham Square, Mountain High.

“We built hundreds of homes on that end of town, and we would like to build hundreds more,” she said.

Before the start of that phased development, the company will have to build water and sewer lines, and roads for the new community.

After much testimony and debate, councilors narrowly rejected a request to reduce the amount of required open space a bit below the minimum of the city’s 10 percent.

Ward and her associates listed the constraints they face there: an odd-shaped lot, railroad tracks to the north, just one access allowed to Country Club Drive, three required road links to an existing neighborhood to the east, and a large rock ridge that is one of the city’s designated, protected “Areas of Special Interest,” or ASIs.

The city’s planning commission had recommended rejecting the variance request, and a slim majority of the council agreed. Ward and the developers said the added open space would cost the project four lots, raising costs for the others, but a majority of councilors said they have other options to reach the 10 percent and thus don’t meet the criteria for a rarely granted variance.

Earlier, during a council work session with Bend Fire and Rescue, councilors agreed that fire prevention and ambulance fees should be raised to cover the full costs, and that non-residents and residents should be billed at different rates. They also accepted a recommendation to implement an “aid call” fee for when treatment is provided, but no ambulance transport. w

A nine-month review of costs included examining water line fees for fire prevention , which will be adjusted to cover cost of living increases. They proposed a fee increase for ambulance transports, but said about 96 percent of those who need an ambulance have their insurance, Medicare or Medicaid cover the cost. That means private payers, about 4 percent of the total, could face higher fees.

“The last time we raised ambulance fees in Bend was in 2005,” said Fire Chief Larry Langston. “We thought it was time to make some adjustments to make sure we are getting the revenue in, so that we can provide the service we need to.”

The council will examine the specifics brought back by staff during next month’s budget discussions.

There also was a second work session topic, and downtown Bend parking could see some big changes over the next few years. A stakeholders advisory committee proposes changing how some park to make it easier for others to find a space. They said many employees use spots downtown visitors and shoppers can’t use, and that pricing and/or permits can be used to have them move and make way for the high-priority spaces along Wall and Bond streets..

Some shoppers and business users say the two-hour limit is not long enough and anywhere but Wall and Bond is unsafe to park. Over the next two or three years, they recommend eliminating free parking at the Mirror Pond lots, improving bike parking and directional signage to parking lots and the garage, and only after all that possibly bring back parking meters, not seen in Bend for decades.

The city council welcomed the proposals and will have more public discussion and debate before any major changes take place. Current plans call for a planning commission presentation and public open house on the strategies next month, followed by council consideration.