The City of Bend will host a Community Information Session on Thursday, July 22 on code amendments that will bring several changes to Bend neighborhoods.

House Bill (HB) 2001 was passed by the Oregon legislature in 2019 and requires that cities allow the development of “middle housing,” or duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes and cottage clusters wherever single-family detached homes are allowed.

The information session will be held online from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It will include a presentation by City staff, followed by a Q&A period.

• To view the proposed amendments and for more information on Bend’s HB 2001 implementation, click here.
• To review a critique of the proposed amendments by several neighborhood association land use chairs, click here.
• To attend the online information session, click here to register.

The City has approved a Tentative Plan to subdivide 81.36 acres in the Discovery West Master Planned Development into 190 total lots consisting of:

• 137 detached standard density single-family residential lots
• 48 attached single-family lots (which includes 10 live-work townhomes, 17 standard townhomes, 9 cluster cottage lots, and 12 mews lots)
• 1 five-acre multi-family lot intended to accommodate up to 134 apartment units, and
• 4 limited commercial lots

The subdivision will be platted in 6 phases to be known as Discovery West Phases 4 through 9.  The subdivision will also create several tracts for park/open space and trail purposes, including an 18.69-acre conveyance to the Bend Parks & Recreation District as a westward extension of Discovery Park.  

An application for a waiver to public improvement standards for segments of Skyline Ranch Road, Ochoa Drive (for wider sidewalks minus the park strip), and Crosby Drive (cross section narrowed to eliminate parking adjacent to schools) was also approved.

To review the City's file on the project, click here. Scroll down for the phasing plan and renderings of the concept for the plaza in phase 4.

A public hearing will be held during the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on Monday, July 26, 2021, at 5:30 pm. This hearing will be about proposed amendments to the Bend Development Code (BDC) to implement House Bill 2001, which requires that cities allow middle housing types where single-family homes are permitted. Middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters.

This will be a virtual meeting. Bend residents can watch the proceedings or provide testimony during the meeting (see instructions below for how to participate).  Written comments may also be submitted prior to the meeting.

• To participate in the hearing, click here. Attendance instructions will be on the meeting agenda,  which will be posted prior to the hearing.
• Written comments may be submitted by email to Pauline Hardie, Senior Planner, at: phardie@bendoregon.gov.  Written comments must include the project number: PLTEXT20210421.
• For more information on the proposed amendments, please see: www.bendoregon.gov/HB-2001.

Anaylsis
While supportive of the effort to increase middle housing choices, an analysis of the draft amendments by several Neighborhood Association land use chairs points to three items they believe should be reviewed carefully by the Planning Commission:

• The proposal doesn't require that developers of master planned areas build any more middle housing. Table 11-1 in the Bend Comprehensive Plan, titled "Residential Master Plan Minimum Density and Housing Mix" is not being changed. It requires that 10% of dwelling units in RS zones and 67% of units in RM and RH zones be duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes, or multi-family. The city could use this opportunity to set separate requirements for middle housing types versus multi-family apartments, and it could increase the required percentage in RS (single-family) zones. Otherwise, future developments can continue the past pattern of building exclusively single-family homes in one area and apartment complexes in other areas, and middle housing will remain missing.
• The proposed amendments increase the size of buildings, including single-family homes, that can be built in RS zones. A standard called the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) limits the scale of buildings to ensure some degree of compatibility. It is currently set at 0.6, meaning that the total amount of gross enclosed floor area on a lot is capped in most cases at 60% of the lot size (e.g., 2,400 sq.ft. on a 4,000 sq.ft. lot), regardless of the number of stories. The new rules do two things:
      1)  Eliminate the 0.6 FAR limit for 1 and 2 story homes; so you will now be able to build a 3,600 sf 2-story home (50% larger than 2,400 sf).
      2)  Allow a FAR of 1.1 if there are 3 stories; so you will now be able to build a 4,400 sf 3-story home on a 4,000 sf lot.
  These changes are not required by the state, and no one has suggested that Bend needs larger homes to solve its housing crisis. The result will be the demolition of more-affordable smaller homes and the gentrification of existing neighborhoods.
• ​The proposed off-street parking minimums are inconsistent and somewhat irrational. The rules adopted by the state provide a range of options to cities. For example, Bend can require zero or one off-street space per duplex dwelling unit. Triplexes and quadplexes can be required to have zero spaces or one per unit or two per lot, depending on lot size. The parking requirements proposed in the draft (zero spaces for duplexes and triplexes, 1 for quad developments, 1 for each townhome, and 1 for each cottage) raise obvious questions:
      1)  What is the rationale for requiring two spaces for a single-family home and two spaces for two attached townhomes, but zero spaces for a duplex?
      2)  Why require four spaces for a cottage development with four units, but only one space for a quadplex, which also has four dwelling units?
  The solution that would be both fair and meet the state's standards under HB 2001 would be to require one off-street space per dwelling unit, regardless of the middle housing type involved. 

A required pre-application public meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 9th at 6:30 PM to present preliminary plans for a 180-unit apartment complex. The development will be on 10 acres of land owned by COCC at the corner of Shevlin Park Rd. & Campus Village Way.

​The meeting will be held via a Zoom conference. To participate, click here. See the attached notice for more details and a tentative map of the project.

Prior to the public meeting, the developer will hold an informal "meet & greet" at the project site on Tuesday, June 8th from 5:30–7:30 PM ​in the parking lot of the COCC Culinary Institute.

A required pre-application public meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 2nd at 5:30 PM to present preliminary plans for the new Talline subdivision on the 74 acre site of the Shevlin Sand & Gravel Co. The developers are preparing an application for a master plan for the property and its annexation into the City. The site was added to the UGB in 2016.

The property is north of Shevlin Park Road and west of subdivisions along Mt. Washington Drive, including Valhalla Heights and Awbrey Glen. Road connections into the new subdivision are expected to include Skyline Ranch Rd., Polarstar Ave., Nordic Ave., and Regency St.

The meeting will be held via Zoom webinar. To register for the meeting, go to https://www.aks-eng.com/talline/. A link to the webinar will be sent in a confirmation email.

​See the attached notice for more details, including a map showing the location of the  property.

Pahlisch Homes and Brooks Resources held a joint meeting with neighbors on May 12th to discuss modifying the plans for what are labeled as Master Plan Areas 1, 2, and 3 in the Bend Comprehensive Plan. 

• Master Plan Area 1 is the Brooks development known as Discovery West, which already has an approved master plan. 
• Master Plan Area 2 is the Pahlisch development called Treeline, which also has an approved master plan. 
• Master Plan Area 3 is located between the other two; the proposed modifications would add it to the Treeline master plan. 

While becoming part of the Treeline master plan, the development of Area 3 would be branded separately and would be called Collier. (See images below.)

The Comprehensive Plan calls for a specific minimum and maximum number of dwelling units in each area, including required townhomes and either duplexes, triplexes or multifamily apartments (D/T/MF). The proposed change would shift 59 D/T/MF units from Area 3 (Collier) to Area 1 (Discovery West). To make room for these units, 1 acre of land zoned Mixed Employment and 1 acre zoned Commercial Limited would be rezoned as Residential Mixed Use. The required maximum number of dwelling units in Area 3 would be reduced from 136 to 77, while Discovery West would grow from 650 to 709.

The Comprehensive Plan also requires that 20% of the D/T/MF units in Area 3 be affordable housing units. That requirement would also shift to Discovery West.

In explaining their reasoning for the change, the developers thought it would improve walkability to locate the higher-density units closer to the area in Discovery West with businesses and services. It would also allow easier access to a major road (Skyliners Road), without traffic from those units having to flow through one of three subdivisions (Discovery West, Northwest Crossing, or Treeline). The Collier development is not expected to have direct access to Skyline Ranch Road, a major collector that will run along the edge of the development, due to a steep slope adjoining the road.

Left unsaid is that 2 acres of land intended to provide jobs and neighborhood services would be lost. Also, the Collier development, with only 77 homes, instead of 136, would be able to have larger lots, with expected higher property values. The result is to shift economic value from the community (jobs, small businesses, convenient services) to the developers of Area 3 (higher-priced homes). The question for the community and the Bend Planning Commission and City Council is whether that is a fair tradeoff.

Neighbors attending the Zoom webinar expressed concerns about traffic, including construction traffic, through adjoining subdivisions, and the lack of an exit from the Collier development to Skyline Ranch Road. The expected long delay in the completion of Skyline Ranch Road between Skyliners Road and Shevlin Park Road was also a concern, especially as it relates to both school traffic and the potential need to evacuate in the event of a wildfire.

A law passed by the Oregon legislature in 2019 requires that cities allow middle housing types where single-family homes are permitted. Duplexes must be allowed on any lot where single-family detached homes are allowed. Triplexes, quadplexes, townhomes, and cottage clusters must be allowed in any zone where single-family detached homes are allowed.

In order to implement the statute and the administrative rules approved by the state in 2020, City staff have been drafting amendments to the Bend Development Code (BDC). The staff has been assisted by a "stakeholder advisory group" composed of representatives from the Planning Commission, City Council, Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, Neighborhood Leadership Alliance, Central Oregon Builders Association, Central Oregon LandWatch, and 1,000 Friends of Oregon, as well as local developers, architects, and neighborhood association representatives.

A draft of amendments to the Bend Comprehensive Plan and the BDC is available on the City web site. The draft addresses siting standards for setbacks, parking, lot coverage, floor area ratio, and height requirements, as well as design standards for garage doors, front door orientation, and windows.

The draft is being circulated to the BDC Update Group (an informal email list of people interested in code changes). A final draft will go to a Planning Commission work session on June 14th. Hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council are expected to be held in July and August.

To access the City's web page with documents related to the draft code changes, click here. Select the document titled "Draft Exhibit A.05 03 21" to review the proposed changes.

A required pre-application public meeting will be held Tuesday, May 18th at 6:00 PM for a proposed development of 9 duplex buildings (18 dwelling units) at 1980 NW Monterey Pines Dr. The site is between Monterey Pines Dr. and College Way (see map in notice).

The meeting will be held via Zoom webinar. To register for the meeting, send an email to monica@bljlawyers.com with your full name and address (a list of attendees must be submitted to the City).

​See the attached notice for more details.

An application has been submitted to the City for a whole-house STR at 2323 NW Marken Place, at the corner of Polarstar & Marken Place.

Please see the attached notice for details on submitting written comments.

A pre-application neighborhood meeting will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, May 12th at 5:30 PM to present a proposed modification of two master plans and parts of the Comprehensive Plan.

Advanced registration is required in order to receive the Zoom link. To register for the Zoom webinar, click here.

The proposal would add about 32 acres to the Treeline development for about 77 single-family homes and reallocate the housing mix within Discovery West and Treeline.

See the attached notice for additional information and a map.