Bend council picks Neff-Purcell signals, aims to clear Juniper Ridge

The city of Bend’s looking to make improvements at the Neff Road and Purcell Boulevard intersection — and due to its unusual location, toward the bottom of a hill, it’s backed a staff recommendation and chosen to expand the signalized intersection, rather than put in a costlier roundabout.

The intersection is one that’s been identified as needing an upgrade, due to the amount of traffic flowing through it as well as some safety concerns due to its steep grade.

Wednesday night, councilors were presented with two options for future changes at the intersection: a roundabout or putting in a new signal with added turn lanes.

Sinclair Burr, a project engineer with the city, said the project will help improve access to that area, and hopefully make it easier to get to and from St. Charles Bend.

“My recommendation is going to be going to go with a (new) signal at that intersection,” Burr said. “Just due to the very steep grades coming down Neff Road, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to build a roundabout there while still maintaining access to the hospital, which is key for this project.”

Councilors said they were in favor of the stop light option not only because it’s safer for the location, but also a much cheaper solution — estimated at $3.8 million, vs. $5.6 million for the roundabout, due to the cost of making it a level traffic circle that Burr said would be about 10 feet higher than the current corner.

The project is still in the early phases. It’s now set to go to through the design process before city council finalizes a budget for the project. Burr said the hope is for construction on the project to begin in 2021.

Councilors also once again took up the topic of Juniper Ridge, this time with a work session focused on the issues of safety, fire danger and access in the wake of a recent vehicle fire that sparked serious concerns.

The council recently appointed a new advisory board as it works toward spurring more development of the 1,500-acre city-owned property, a long-sought goal to add more jobs, stymied by issues from costly infrastructure needs to the recession that hit a decade ago.

Back on August 10, an RV caught fire that officials now say was stolen from an area dealer and abandoned after getting high-centered at Juniper Ridge. Bend Deputy Fire Chief Bob Madden told councilors access to the location was, as always a challenge, but some factors worked in their favor — a recent rainfall and lack of strong winds.

“If we had had a wind, we’d have had our hands full,” he said.

City Chief Operating Officer Jon Skidmore spoke about the future of the property, and how the land will need to be managed going forward.

“We’ve been given specific direction, in terms of more intense property management, from trash cleanup to blockading illegal accesses, signing the property, fuels reduction, but we haven’t really moved into what to do with the camping population out there.”

That discussion ramped up Wednesday night, as councilors gave staff the direction they sought, calling for drafting a state-required policy that would lay out the steps needed to make the area safer and remove the homeless camping population. But Councilor Justin Livingston and others called for the plan to address long-term campers on public lands not only the Juniper Ridge property but the entire city.

Skidmore explained that state law requires a policy for how to remove people from established campsites “in a humane fashion,” including posting at least 24 hours notice. It’s not required to have a place to move them, but does require coordination with service providers.

“It’d be at least a four-month process,” Skidmore said, also saying it’s possible to consider “some sort of managed camping approach” at Juniper Ridge, if councilors want.

Councilor Bruce Abernethy called the situation a “dilemma,” noting he’s been “a very strong advocate” on the issues of homelessness. He asked about any lessons from a similar process recently undertaken on undeveloped land on the outskirts of Redmond. Skidmore noted the time that city took to work with social services and several notices, along with some police flexibility, if people were making good progress toward moving on.

After Abernethy asked if they knew where those people removed from the Redmond-area property went, colleague Barb Campbell joked, “Did they hand out maps to Juniper Ridge?”

But Skidmore stressed the city has a responsibility to manage the property for the worried neighbors, the property and the city itself. “It’s not a safe environment,” he said.

Mayor Sally Russell agreed that the issue of camping on public land is “not something we can continue to ignore,” due to the negative impacts — and not just at Juniper Ridge. “It’s a striking, shocking increase along Century Drive,” she noted — and unless approached carefully, “we’re just shifting the problem around.”

After Campbell mentioned one idea, of a “tiny home village,” City Manager Eric King said some recent state legislation relaxes some building standards to “make it easier for pods of homes,” and there is some discussion in the community about that.

“I’m not sure this is the exact place to do that, but there could be opportunities elsewhere,” King said.

Russell also pointed out, “There are people out there who really just prefer to camp” and “don’t want to be in a shelter or a tiny home village.”

But Livingston echoed others views: “We need to step up and be a responsible land owner.”