Deschutes County may allow more rural homes

The Deschutes County Planning Commission has invited residents to attend two upcoming public hearings on proposed policies that would allow the county to re-evaluate some rural land designations.

The public hearings will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, and 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at the Deschutes Services Building, at 1300 NW Wall Street in Bend.

In the 1970s, state land use policy resulted in the bulk of Deschutes County’s undeveloped rural land being classified as farm or forestland. However, some of that land is unsuitable for farming or forestry.

County planning staff has created draft policies that would allow incorrectly classified resource lands to be rezoned as Non-Prime Resource Lands, which are areas with a low capacity to be managed for commercial agriculture or forestry activities.

“These policies would help us correct the zoning for rural lands that were historically designated for activities that we now know they aren’t suitable for,” said Peter Gutowsky, the county’s planning manager.

“Many of our rural resource lands with these designations are subject to strict zoning requirements that make it difficult for land owners to build new houses or complete remodels or additions. Rezoning them would help with that, and would potentially allow for future development without overly restrictive regulations.”

If acknowledged, the proposed policies would create two new zones – one with a 20-acre minimum parcel size and another with a 10-acre minimum parcel size.

The 20-acre zone would be available for property owners to apply on their own. Deschutes County would apply the 10-acre zone to six specific areas that already include residential development and were planned before the county designated them as farmland and forestland.

They include:

· The Skyline subdivision and its first addition (Bend)

· Haner Park (South County)

· Section 36 (South County)

· The Meadow Crest Acres subdivision (South County)

· The Squaw Creek Canyon Recreational Estates (Sisters)

For more information on Non-Prime Resource Lands, visit www.deschutes.org/npr or contact Deschutes County Associate Planner Zechariah Heck at (541) 385-1704.