West Bend apartments proposal has neighbors worried
A developer from Seattle is trying to build a big apartment complex on the Deschutes River, and neighbors are not happy about it.
The proposal comes from the Evergreen Housing Development Group. It’s the same developer that built the Pilot Butte Commons.
They now want to build a 45-foot tall, 185-unit apartment complex on the west side of Bend. The lot is currently empty. It sits next to a neighborhood and above the Deschutes River, looking down on McKay Park.
Ten days ago, people living in the area received a letter from the developer inviting them to attend a meeting about the proposal on March 1. In response, unhappy neighbors have rallied together to express their concerns with the project, including Cheryl Dix, a former city planner, who is leading the charge.
“Where are all these cars going to park? Where are they going to ingress and egress of this property? What is this going to do to the westerly setting sun on the river? What’s this going to do to our views on the river, and just the aesthetics of this level of development this close to the river?” Dix said.
The neighbors said their biggest concern is parking and traffic. The developer is proposing building 155 parking spaces on site and then using 30 parking spaces on the street; that totals 185 spots for 185 units.
Jenny Sheldon has lived in Bend for 30 years and said she is open to compromise.
“I understand that Bend is growing and everything, but I think to grow so fast, so quickly is a little scary,” she said. “And maybe we just need to tone back what the plan is, to make it more appropriate for the area and the lot size, instead of just everybody that’s moving here. They need to consider that we’ve been here also.”
The developers have yet to submit a formal land use application to the city, but they did hold a pre-development meeting in November. They were told they needed to provide a traffic impact study, as well as an engineering study
The information meeting about the project is happening next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at The Pavilion.
