Prineville expands urban growth boundary for industrial land

Prineville city councilors have approved a resolution to expand the city’s urban growth boundary by 38 acres. That acreage is already part of a 230-acre industrial site.

According to the city’s planning director, Phil Stenbeck, the additional acreage was originally zoned as “county-heavy industrial” and is now labeled “city-heavy industrial.”

The property is located on Houston Lake Road, just east of the city’s landfill.

Stenbeck said Wednesday the city strategically plans for businesses to come to Prineville, so if a plot is zoned for industrial use, that is what it will be used for.

By state land-use law, both the city and the county have to approve expanding the UGB.

“So a UGB can’t just be expanded anywhere,” Stenbeck said. “What you will find is the cost of adding that infrastructure is so expensive, you find areas where it doesn’t make sense economically to provide lands to the UGB.”

None of the land zoned for industrial use is near a residential area.

“Industrial lands are where manufacturing jobs are created and the type of businesses that create jobs,” Stenbeck said.

The city still needs an additional 300 acres of industrial land to meet its goal.

Stenbeck said because of the Oregon statewide land-use planning program, the city must provide economic opportunities by making sure there is an inventory of buildable industrial lands.

Even with the additional 38 acres, the city is still short on industrial lands. It needs an additional 300 acres, which has not been identified yet. The state requires cities identify a 20-year supply of residential, industrial and commercial land, based on projected growth.

“We have adequate residential ,and we could probably use a little bit of commercial land, but what we found is we had a deficit of industrial land,” Stenbeck said.

Meanwhile, an update for the Prineville/Crook County airport master plan is underway and was presented to city council Tuesday night. It has not been updated since 2003.

According to Airport Manager Kelly Coffelt, the plan will create a 10- to 20-year forecast of needs. The process of updating that plan began a year and a half ago, and future changes include runway and building expansion, and the possible introduction of the drone industry.

According to Coffelt, in the last six to seven years, the amount of aircraft on the field in Prineville has nearly doubled, from 74 to 134 planes.

He also made it clear the airport will not serve commercial purposes.