City Council Meeting Notes 01/19/22
Hey everyone! I've returned from my trip to the under-city beneath Mirror Pond, where all the tourists who fall off their paddle-boards are trapped. After taking a look at how much tuition I have to start paying this Spring, I searched deep inside my bank account heart and decided now is a great time to set up a Substack for these posts. For those who have been asking for ways to support me, this is your opportunity. If you like what I do here and want to give me money in addition to your attention, please consider subscribing. Be assured that I intend to continue releasing these meeting notes for free on r/bend in perpetuity, and future shameful self promotion will be limited to a link at the bottom of the post and self-deprecating jokes. I don't really know how Substack works or even what to call the newsletter, but I did figure out how to make this neat promo! Go to tailorglad.substack.com/blazeit to get 40% off the subscription cost for a year, bringing the monthly subscription to $4.20! That's $0.80 less than the minimum cost Substack will let me set it to, so don't you dare suggest I overvalue my work you fuckers.
Oh, also I'm on Twitter now.
I'd apologize for taking your time hawking my SoundCloud or whatever, but it doesn't matter. You're with me for a while today. We're starting an hour early and there's no way this post will be any less than a mile long. So strap in and please hold my hand, because the only way we're gonna make it through to the other side of this meeting is together.
Quarterly Update on Council Goals
We're starting with an update on Council Goals. We last got an update on goal progress in October, when we heard from the Environment and Climate Committee, the Police Chief, and about the new Council Goal Dashboard. Today, the agenda says we're getting updates on Council's Accessible & Effective Government, and Housing goals.
Manager King is here to present. Holy shit Councilor Schenkelberg cut off all their hair. It looks clean AF. Ugh, and that jean jacket? That fit is stunning. Councilor Broadman and Schenkelberg are both wearing n95s. What were we talking about? Oh goals. 86% of Council goals are on-target or complete. They are going to release a quarterly report that details their progress. There are 3 specific goals that need attention in the Transportation Plan. There is a new houseless shelter dashboard that shows the number of shelter beds in the City. Currently there are 280. 123 low barrier and 157 high barrier. You can find this graphic in the Housing section of the goal dashboard. The City has doubled the number of beds available in town in the last 18 months. Staff wants to know if there are any changes that the council would like made to the dashboard?
Councilor Barb Campbell wants to know what a Permanent Shelter Bed is? A permanent bed is there all the time, unlike a temporary bed, which would be like a bed that is temporarily put up in a gym or something.
Councilor Perkins would like to know if there is any way to show the disparity between the number of beds we have, vs how much we need? Its challenging because how many beds we need is really fuzzy. Official data is that there is 1000ish people experiencing houselessness in CO, so they'd need Bend-specific data for that.
Accessible & Effective Government
A major goal is to make sure core services will keep pace with Bend's growth. There are some budget requests and position changes that staff wants to talk about to keep the city functioning. They want to add 5 new staff positions. They need an additional engineer to help with the GO Bond, a Community Service Lead Officer, and some other staff that are just as important, but you don't really need to know to be honest. The proposed city budget needs to be increased by about 12 million dollars. Mostly to support changes to how they are going to implement the GO bond. The city is getting 7 million dollars of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the Federal Government in May, we'll hear more about it later.
Councilor Kebler wants to know why the Air Traffic Control Tower is showing up in the budget adjustments when its going to be paid for by grant money? Stuff paid by grant money is included in this particular city budget.
Equity Framework
Staff Member Anna is here to present. The city is using an equity mapping tool to inform local leaders making decisions in where specifically to address inequity in the city. They have a dashboard that shows useful information. For example, it has a Map that shows where residents are living below the poverty line. They want to be very careful with the data since it could be used by shitty people to do shitty things. They are looking at what other mid-sized cities are doing with their equity frameworks. They are currently working on writing Bend's Draft Framework. Anna really rocked this presentation.
Councilor Kebler likes the direction the Equity Framework is going. She wants us to move away from that map. Anna agrees, data is important, but sometimes data is inequitable.
Housing
Chief Operating Officer Russ is here with a housing Update. 525 units have been completed since last July. There are 1618 units under construction. There has been a large shift in what kind of housing is being built in Bend. A majority of new units are categorized as Multifamily Residential. Bend has been expanding the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) since 2016. All properties in the expansion of the UGB on the West side are in active development. On the North end of town the North Star Elementary School opened in Fall of 2019, and the Deschutes County Library is progressing. In the South there isn't much to talk about except for Stevens Ranch, which is under construction. None of the areas in the North East are set for construction yet. There are 10 different regions on this map zoned for residential development. Looks like thousands of acres. There is also a bunch of infill development in progress too. Like a lot. A bunch of multi-unit building plans are being submitted all over town. This is honestly SUCH GOOD NEWS!
Councilor Perkins loved the slides. I also loved the slides.
Oh my god, it takes Councilor Barb Campbell like 6 minutes to ask 1 question. I'm not sure what she asked, but she had a question about the change in the ratio of multi-unit / single unit housing. Russ says that we are exceeding our past expectations for the number of higher density housing we're seeing in development in the UGB.
Community Development
There is a very high application load for new building permits. There has been a huge increase in both quantity and project complexity for new constructions projects the city has to approve. Oh and they had 25% staff turnover last year. Life is hard. The online permit center they launched in 2020 finally started working in November. It has been an extremely hard year, but they think they are on the road to improvement. They are not out of the woods yet, but the future looks bright.
When are we taking a break? I need to pee.
Climate Friendly & Equitable Communities Rule-making
They're working on implementing rule-making changes based on Governor Brown's executive order to address climate change. Damian represents the city on the rule-making advisory committee. They are drafting rules still. Most of the changes are happening to transportation planning rules. These rules are intended to increase density, make it easier for people to get where they need to go by foot, decrease car dependency, etc. Its really important, really dry stuff. I remember this guy's last presentation. His public speaking skills have improved by an order of magnitude. There will be a Land Conservation and Development commission meeting about this on February 3rd where public comment will be allowed. The first public hearing on these draft rules is planned for the end of March.
Council & Committee Discussion
Representatives from various different committees are here to give feedback about the Goals Update or to have a non-specific discussion with Council about whatever they want to talk about.
Cindy from the affordable housing advisory committee feels like they do not have enough information about how these draft rules affect affordable housing goals. They want permission to work on ensuring fiscal responsibility for middle income housing RFPs. They also want to do an "Additional Dwelling Unit" Pilot. They want to explore how height restrictions in the building code affect affordable housing. After some clarification by Councilor Kebler, Council gives the committee permission to do what they want.
Kevin from the Economic Development Advisory Board. They have been experiencing the permitting problems Russ was talking about acutely. He is worried that Bend is losing opportunities because of delays and confusion for commercial property developers. We need to focus on Bend's transit capacity if we want to comply with these new climate goals. He wants to know how these climate requirements will impact Bend's competitiveness in the local region. Manager King wants to know if Council wants to examine the Climate rules from a "competitive lens". Councilor Barb Campbell nods her head enthusiastically. Councilor Broadman wants to know what "competitive lens" means. Kevin says he wants to look at complying with the rules in a way that doesn't harm competitiveness.
Neil from the Environment Climate Committee (ECC) is supportive of the proposed climate rules because it will help reach the city's climate goals. The city's current transportation project plans will not do enough to reach their goals. The ECC wants the City to limit critiques of the rules to only requests for additional resources for complying with the rule changes. Councilor Kebler wants to be clear that she absolutely supports taking large action on the climate crisis. It is a worthy goal. She thinks the city should be supported in implementing these rules.
Kathleen is here from the Boyd Acres Neighborhood Association. Please keep the Neighborhood Associations involved. The map they showed of where we are building right now does not match these climate goals.
Jasmine from the Human Rights and Equity Commission wants to make sure HREC is involved with these discussions.
The Council ran away to their private executive session 15 minutes past schedule, which means I'm left alone here with you all for a bit... Sup? How about that Omicron stuff huh? That's been crazy.
Work Session
The work session began in private executive session to conduct deliberations with persons designated to negotiate real property transactions.
Standards and Specifications Project Update
Ryan the City Engineer is here to talk about this Spec update. They've been working on bringing our design standards and construction specifications up to date for the last year and a half. Construction specifications haven't been updated since 2008, so its time to revamp that. This is a major overhaul. The primary objective is to align with the Transportation system plan and be consistent with the Bend Development code and reference the new Oregon Standard Specifications that were released in 2021. These specs apply to the right of way. AKA "curb to curb". It looks like spec is going to be changed to require sidewalks and buffered bike lanes on collector roads. Travel lane width is going to be reduced in general. Pedestrian and Bike "stress" reduction is a priority in the new standard. All that sounds good. It seems like a huge improvement.
A first reading for the new spec is planned for February 1st.
Councilor Broadman had a question about road width. 32 foot roads are allowed in certain instances. 36 feet is too wide for certain situations. Broadman thinks we should go narrower. An option with a 32 foot road and a 36 foot road option will be brought in on the 1st.
Councilor Kebler wants the roads to be as narrow as possible, since narrow roads slow cars down. She wants to know if bikes will be forced to onto those bike lanes without a barrier. THEY SAY NO. For bike users that are uncomfortable in the bike lanes, they can use the buffered sidewalk. Did they get input from bikers, Kebler asks? No.. feedback was primarily from industry, whispers someone. Councilor Kebler would like to see a standard that includes a physical barrier between the bike lane and the road brought forward.
Councilor Barb Campbell confirmed that there are no designated bike lanes required for local streets. In the old standard the narrowest sidewalk is 5 feet on local streets, the new standard is 6.
Councilor Broadman is concerned that this spec is not going to prevent the the city doing modal filters on high traffic roads. Staff says that it is a minimum standard, there is plenty of flexibility for awesomer roads. The spec can be backed up by changes to code language to build key routes differently.
Mayor Russell wants to move the meeting along, if Broadman doesn't hurry up they won't get a break.
I would really like some clarity about the speed limits shown in the spec update example of the presentation. From my reading, it looks like it could allow speed limits of 40 MPH without a physical barrier between cars and a bike lane? I'm not excited about that at all. If a car hits you at 40 MPH, you die.
Wow! Clarity on this was actually given during the mid meeting break via Councilor Kebler on the Twitter thread where I saw this pointed out:
"These specs we saw tonight are not the full "Complete Street" specs, which will be in a separate document that staff is still working on updating. I'm sure you heard mine and Councilor Broadman's questions/concerns/suggestions tonight on improving these minimum standards too." - Councilor Kebler
How are you so cool? I don't understand.
Juniper Ridge Bend Development Code Amendments
To whichever beautiful staff member added these presentations as PDFs to the Agenda this week: I love you so god damn fucking much. You are so nice.
Ben the business advocate is here to talk about moving publicly owned land in juniper ridge into private hands for more rapid economic development. There is 500 acres of property of Juniper Ridge in the UGB. There is an additional 1000 acres outside of the UGB. Developing Juniper Ridge could increase non-farm jobs in Bend by 5%. Ben assures us that is a lot. Juniper Ridge has had a lot of development challenges in the past thanks to infrastructure constraints, CC&R problems, and the recession. People were reluctant to develop there until 2017. The city has finally sold all of the lots that were slated for sale before the recession. The city set up a board to plan out how to develop the area. They're developing a process to create large 100 acre tracts of land to sell to developers.
Councilor Barb Campbell thinks its a bit backwards to sell large lots zoned the same if the City's goal is to build mixed use developments. Very good point says Russ. They'll think about that later, there is a lot of flexibility for mixed use development compared to other industrial zones. There is a need for industrial land right now, and right now is more about developing a pipeline and process for large land sale, rather than what to do with the rest of Juniper Ridge.
Time for BURA
The Bend Urban Renewal Agency meeting started with roll call and all that funky goodness.
They're here to do the second reading of that amendment to the Bend Municipal Code to add the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) to the Core Area Advisory Board, to get that additional representative they talked about last week and also the week before.
They did that.
BURA time is up! See you next time, BURA!
Yesssss, My best boo brought me wine. Thank you sexy. Its a red one, which means it tastes like past mistakes and regret.
Regular Meeting
The regular meeting began with roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Land Acknowledgment.
Update on Temporary Housing Strategies
FYI, Councilor Perkins posted a text version of the previous update to the City Website after the last council meeting. It's much more comprehensive than what I was able to transcribe live.
Councilor Perkins emphasizes that city action is limited until the city has enough beds to move people to. The city has a goal to have 500 beds. The city has met with the people who responded to the RFP about the micro shelter. This proposal is not slated for any particular site. The Project Turnkey shelter may open before the end of this winter. The warming shelter is consistently full. Learn more about it here. There is an opportunity to turn it into a navigation center. 40 - 60 more beds may be added soon. The City of Bend is looking for partners to expand the safe parking program. If you want to help with that, you can find contact info here. A contractor picked up 5k pounds of waste off of 2nd street and made sure that the right of ways in that area are clear. No people were removed.
Public Comment
Siri interrupted Mayor Russell. Looks like we've got 9 callers. Ugh. Any number above 4 is a bad sign.
John is not talking to Lisa the sock puppet today. He's still concerned about a 9th street potential 6 person micro shelter, or shelter for homeless old ladies.
Ryan from the summit west neighborhood association is mad about the proposed changes from the report from the sounding board to house our neighbors. The neighborhood wants an update on other projects like Project Turnkey. Bro, they gave one like 8 minutes ago.
Candice is a business owner on 2nd street. She is concerned about the growing homeless population on 2nd street. She was chased by a transient last week, and called in a heroin overdose as well.
James is also a business owner on 2nd street who is also experiencing these problems. He no longer feels safe in the shop and his employees won't work there at night.
Jill is from the Northpointe HOA. She doesn't feel like council is listening. She has a question: You were told that Juniper Ridge shows the potential for jobs. How does establishing a homeless camp in this area draw businesses?
Chris owns property in Bend and lives in the county. The tents remain on 2nd street. The "desperados of the homeless community" live there. City police are allegedly telling people to call in to the city council about 2nd street.
Daniel runs the Campfire Hotel by 2nd street. He says that he brought up the problem when the problem was much more manageable. He was really respectful.
Stephanie is talking about a survey the city did she doesn't like, but never actually said what survey she's talking about. She's now talking about homelessness, so I assume she's talking about sounding board survey. She doesn't want to pay property taxes any more.
Nicole wants the Sounding board to house our neighbors to do something for her neighborhood association.
Christina says the city has a major houselessness problem. They understand that its impacting businesses, but this is not a problem that is solved over night. We should be treating people like human beings.
Heidi is here to oppose a 9th street potential 6 person micro shelter, or shelter for homeless old ladies.
Jessica just recently got involved with this. Her biggest concern is the safety issue. She was just reading about the Eugene model. She wants to make sure help is given to the people that need it.
Mayor Russell encourages people who called in to go back to the update Councilor Perkins made tonight.
Consent Agenda
Notable Items on the Consent Agenda:
We gotta give BNSF Railway more money to inspect the Murphy Corridor Improvements Project because its taking more time. Issue Summary
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. is being contracted for design and engineering services during construction for the Awbrey Glen and Westside Pump Station Improvements Project. Issue Summary
The City is buying 7 new police vehicles from Kendall Ford of Bend
The Fire Department is buying medical supplies from Life-Assist. This is the one that got carried over from last week.
Consent agenda was unanimously approved without discussion.
Public hearing and Amendment to the the Dean Swift Refinement Plan
The issue summary for this agenda item is making my brain go numb, but that's fine! It looks like they're going to be developing the corner of Bear Creek Rd and Purcell Blvd into multi-unit housing. Google Map Link. I am always on board for any and all high density housing. It looks like they want to put 176 units on the property. This is one of those quasi-judicial amendments, so the council is acting like it's a court room and the attorney is here.
Nicolas is here from the community development department. The amendment would change the density rate for the plot to make it less dense, and to remove the senior only restriction of the property. They also want to switch a multi-use path on the property into a sidewalk. The multi-use path would be moved to Purcell.
Councilor Kebler wants to know whats going on with this path? Was there consideration for how this path interacts with the Larkspur trail? Nick says that the Bear Creek Road is going to have a multi-modal pathway that the the new Purcell path would connect to. Sounds reasonable. Future intersection improvements and maybe a roundabout would ease the access concerns to the Larkspur trail (ETA 2023).
Councilor Barb Campbell wants to know if the development is going to pay for the roundabout? No, it's funded by the GO bond. What happened to the senior housing? The demand for senior housing has "cratered" thanks to COVID.
Mark, the developer's representative, is here to have camera problems, but we can hear him. He says staff has been great to work with. They are proposing six 3-story buildings, a club house, and a "bike garage". He confirms he switched to multi-family housing away from a senior center because COVID and to respond to the changes to Bend's housing market.
Councilor Schenkelberg is confused about what we are voting on here. Mayor Russell says it's a good point. What they're doing is weird. This is a land use application. This land has additional regulations that apply to this property on the city's "refinement plan". In that plan a special regulation was requested by the developer to make the senior housing thing. This is mostly to nix the changes that were previously requested. Rita says that explanation was a huge help. They hope there is affordable housing in this development.
Public Comment
Same Ryan from earlier wants to comment on Councilor Schnkelberg's hope that this has affordable housing. "It is YOUR job to ensure that it does." He was cut off for attacking a specific councilor. The fucking animosity that was dripping from his voice pisses me off. Asshole.
Councilor Broadman wants to make sure that there will be an opportunity to look at the transportation elements of the plan later.
Councilor Kebler says that she would like to see affordable housing in all of our developments, but its actually really expensive to do those kinds of projects. Bend needs a lot more market rate housing too, so she has no problem approving this project.
Amendment passed unanimously.
Second Readings
For all intents and purposes, Second Readings are procedural confirmations of the actions Council took during the previous City Council Meeting.
Second readings passed.
City's purchase of the Rainbow Motel
Councilor Broadman says that there is an opportunity to acquire the Rainbow Motel for Council Goals. He proposes the purchase of the site for about 4 million dollars. Guess that's what they we're talking about in Private Session today. Council Unanimously approves. Sweet.
Councilor Show and Tell
Councilor Goodman Campbell did an interview on OPP last Friday on what the city is doing to deal with our houselessness problems. She is proud she was able to represent the City.
Councilor Kebler has COVID and she feels terrible. She's happy that it's not worse since she is vaccinated. Check out the Father's Group.
Councilor Perkins did a bunch of work all over the place on the council's houselessness initiatives and also went to a bunch of different committees. She went to The Father's Group event and thought it was great.
Councilor Barb Campbell attended the Central Oregon Commission for Access. The new Accessibility and Inclusion Director was there. There are accessibility concerns about snowplowing and keeping sidewalks clear. If you need help getting places and snow is impeding you, a good place to reach out to is your neighborhood association. She did lots of other stuff, but I zoned out.
Manager King says if you need to reach out to the city for bike lane repair, pothole, snow removal, traffic signal issues and street lights, or debris in the right of way, please file a service request. If you noticed, all of the Staff Presentations will be posted in the agenda to improve accessibility. I DID NOTICE ERIC. I AM VERY HAPPY.
Meeting Adjourned.
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