Westside residents voice opposition to apartments

(Update: Refining term for four-story building)

A meeting Thursday evening about a proposed four-story development on Bend’s Westside got heated.

As NewsChannel 21 first reported last week, a developer from Seattle is trying to build an apartment complex near the Deschutes River.

Neighbors are not happy about it, and they packed the meeting at The Pavilion.

The representative from Evergreen Housing Development Group was peppered with questions, most of which had to do with traffic and parking on the already-clogged west side of town. Nearby residents fear plans for the 45-foot-tall, 185-unit complex don’t have enough parking spots, despite the project passing the city’s standards.

The critics said it’s too big a project for the area.

“It’s just totally out of character with the town,” Bend resident Dustin Whitaker said. “I’ve seen it go from 20,000 people when I was going to school here to how big it is now. This might fly in Seattle, but they’re trying to hammer a square peg in a round hole with this size of a development.”

Several people at the meeting said they recognize and even embrace that Bend is expanding but would like to see infrastructure improvements like more lanes on some roads or an expanded bus service.

They also said they’d like to see more than the reported 45 percent of the revenue from the complex stay in Bend — as it stands, the rest would go back to its corporate headquarters in Seattle.

Many in attendance were optimistic about the effect the meeting could have on the project. “We may not win this one, but the next project might be affected,” one Westside resident said.

The representative for the developer declined an interview, but did say, “It was good to hear what the residents had to say.”