Bend may join red-light camera fold, plans pause on disputed tax breaks and gets earful from biz on SDC fee changes

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Bend city councilors gave Police Chief Mike Krantz a “green light” last Wednesday evening to continue developing what might become the most controversial element of his department’s technology advances, joining Oregon cities who have installed “red light cameras” at the most dangerous intersections, to reduce crashes and save lives.

They also later gave a “red light” of sorts to a recently controversial program: pausing the ‘MUPTE’ (milt-use property tax exemption program) for any new applications until it and other similar incentives are reviewed and perhaps narrowed in scope, after a 5-1 vote at their last meeting to approve a $10 million tax break for the Jackstraw project.

But the most emotional part of the night came during the visitors’ section, when numerous speakers, from young children to seniors and from various perspectives, took nearly an hour to make impassioned, at times emotional pleas for the council to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire on the war in Gaza. Councilors thanked them for their comments but took no action on their request.

Krantz and others gave the council a quarterly update on progress on the council goals. Police said tech upgrades such as a “Bend-Area Real Time Information Center” in the works will provide quick vital information to first responders, to everyone’s benefit. A “drone as first responder” program is under consideration, to gather important info without putting people in harm’s way.

Then there’s “automated traffic enforcement,” the red-light camera system discussed off and on over the years. Krantz pointed to federal data that shows nearly 30% of all traffic deaths are due to speed-related crashes. Tigard, for example, saw a crash reduction with such ticketing systems.

“This is one tool – it’s not ‘the’ tool,” Krantz said.

Councilor Barb Campbell, well aware of the criticism likely to emerge, pointed to how the red-light ticket revenue will be used to operate the system – it’s not a way to generate more revenue for other city uses.

“Computers are not motivated to make money, so maybe it is OK (with critics) on this one,” she said.

Then there a Bend-only “equity issue” – Eastside vs; Westside. She said a program like this would not target one area over another. There’s fewer traffic signals on the Westside, so there are fewer such crashes.

Councilors gave the nod to keep working on implementing such a system, and promised to engage with neighborhood associations and the public to gather feedback before any final decisions.

The council also backed a staff proposal for a “strategic assessment of all current and new incentive programs,” not just the MUPTE, where they can’t stop two applications already in the pipeline. Rather than broad “tax-increment financing” areas, the council might back a new, more narrowly focused setup with site-specific “investment zones,” for specific projects.

A potential controversy appears to have eased, as utilities are generally supportive of a much-revised shift from current individual franchise agreements to a more uniform setup based on a new city right of way code.  Current agreements will remain in place until they expire, and no change is made to the fee percentage itself (5-7% of gross revenue), as it’s not a bid to boost revenue, said Michael Selkirk of the city attorney’s office.

Central Electric Cooperative President and CEO Brad Wilson said the initial “lack of stakeholder involvement” was concerning but praised Selkirk and city staff for changing course and leading to a “document that is workable for all parties.”

A public hearing was held on another complex and touchy issue, a major revision to system development charges, what developers pay to help, in the old term, “growth pay its own way.”

The changes include tiered fees for new housing based on square footage – reducing them for smaller housing, raising them for the largest. But enough issues were raised that staff suggested even before the hearing they not adopt them pending further discussion with those affected.

Staff said policy decisions in 2003 led to aggregating and combining several SDC categories for a simpler system, one of many aspects that will be reviewed for changes in coming weeks.

But the heat is on over potential SDC increases for businesses from medical offices to car dealers and fitness facilities of over 100%. Revisions in the ITE manual governments use to set “trip rates” also played a role, so it’s not all local decisions, but there are plenty of those, and room for lots of debate.

Bend Chamber CEO Katy Brooks acknowledged the city’s challenges in finding needed funds but said they oppose the methodologies that would boost SDCs in some categories “up to 300%." She asked that the city pause the adoption, communicate the impacts to those affected and “consider doing some sort of phased approach” to ease the impacts.

Dr. Russell Massine, a nephrologist, said the current footprint of medical office space in the city doesn't meet current patient needs, much less future ones, so the higher fees will have direct and indirect impacts to patients and other businesses.

The costs can't be passed along, for example, to Medicare patients with fixed fees, already a problem, so lack of access to care would only worsen, he and others said. Massine suggested "some sort of exemption" for medical office space, to avoid those impacts.

Morgan Greenwood, vice president of government affairs for the Central Oregon Builders Association, did back a change that would allow more SDC deferrals to be paid at the time of certificate of occupancy, not when a building permit is issued. But she said the square footage of a building doesn't always translate to more impact on infrastructure.

Chief Operating Officer Russ Grayson said that while there's room for "some middle ground to soften the impact,” and discussions with those affected will continue, any policy decisions to reduce fees in some categories don’t mean other categories can pick up the slack -- it means “we are foregoing revenue, meaning we’re not going to build everything in our plan.”

Mayor Melanie Kebler agreed with the call to look at phasing in the fee increases on those who face the biggest impact. But at the end of a long night, she asked those who represent certain segments and are involved and kept abreast of the process to weigh in with councilors earlier.

Councilors Anthony Broadman and Barb Campbell said people need to keep in mind not just percentage hikes from what might have been flawed fee levels set 20 years ago, but how the current fees compare to other cities. City Manager Eric King said an update on the various issues will come back for a Feb. 21 work session.