Happy ridiculously long Work Session day! To celebrate the occasion, today's meeting starts two hours early. This is a fun surprise that I was definitely prepared for. Today we have a meeting stacked with housing, homelessness, transportation work, and the faintest smidgen of Kevista Drama. We've got progress on the Midtown Crossings Projects, and work on the Neighborhood Street Safety Programs. Plus, the city is adding a process that will allow them to sell city-owned property to build affordable housing. Cough Cough
Work Session
Council Updates on Housing and Homelessness
So Staff are starting the work session off today with some general updates on a bunch of stuff they are working on, mostly focused on housing and homelessness. Emotionally prepare for screenshot dumps.
General Updates
The City is working on improving their website, and is also working on implementing a better community request system. The Human Rights and Equity Commission is still working on the Equity Framework. The Home Energy Score goes live on July 1st. The city set up a Pre-approved ADU Program that is pretty cool. Having pre-approved ADU floor plans has been something I have been asking for since July. The City has begun discussions with stakeholders about changes to the City's System Development Charges and a Transportation Utility Fee. The short term rental audit has been completed.
Housing Overview
There has been a large shift to multi-family residential construction for new housing construction. Below are a selection of multi-unit housing projects in progress.
Councilor Mendez wants to know what the plan is going forward for 27th street as more development goes in there? These roads used to be county roads, and as these developments get put in, the streets will be adapted to comply with city standards. Things like roundabouts and multi-use paths will eventually be added.
Additional pre-approved ADUs are being looked at. A lot of housing related stuff is going through the State Legislature.
The city is putting a lot of work into encouraging development of the Core Area. We are trying to convert the area from industrial use to mixed commercial/residential. We are currently getting the first buildings built up to really catalyze growth. These are all the investments that the city is doing to improve the core area:
On current housing market conditions:
Demand is still high, but costs have really increased. Interest rates, inflation, and supply chain issues are cutting into margins for building developments. Inflation and supply chain issues are becoming less of a problem over time. Developers are having a hard time getting things funded, several projects have been put on hold. Tax incentive programs like MUPTE can help projects that don't pencil come to market.
Homelessness
According to the 2022 point in time count, there are approximately 785 houseless people in Bend. This is an undercount. We currently have 396 shelter beds, 100 of which are low barrier.
Just want to point out that the cost of $27 from the City per night per guest sounds pretty good.
The Franklin Avenue Shelter is Vacant. The City has applied for state funds to pay for opening shelters. The county is also opening up some ARPA money for the Rainbow Motel site.
Consolidated Plan
The State requires that we draft a Consolidated Plan every 5 years. Staff are working on rewriting ours to better reflect our goals.
25% of Bend's households spend more than 50% of their income on housing. This is considered severely cost burdened.
We need "Steps of housing" to make housing accessible across the spectrum of housing options. We need more of every kind of housing in this graphic, including market rate housing, if we want a healthy housing market.
Permitting Process Improvements
The audio cut out, so I'm not sure what's going on. I assume Russ is talking about all the things we are doing to lower permit times. Like how the department is back to being full staffed, they have less software problems, and are changing the process to push permits out faster.
Hey, Audio is back. Prescreening can help fast-track permitting, getting easy permits out of the queue much faster. The master reissue program will let people build projects that have already been approved multiple times without having to go through the entire process again on a building that is permit-wise identical. Everything in the above slide with Q1 next to it is already in place.
First review times over the last two months have gone down after the changes the department has implemented. This is excellent news. I have no idea why they selected a chart that doesn't clearly show this though. Here is that information displayed from the public dashboard.
I think staff are just really excited because their new system gives them data analytics that are better than any other city in the state. Being able to differentiate between "Days with staff" and "Days with developer" is apparently big news. The transparency in how the permitting department works is pretty unprecedented in Oregon, and it's because Council has explicitly asked for this.
Permit fee increase outreach
So unfortunately, we need more money to retain existing staff without a budget shortage. This department is funded through permit fees.
This is a concerning chart. Blue bar needs to be below the poop-green line in a healthy department.
This is permit per employee compared to the valuation of projects handled per employee. This roughly shows productivity per person.
If we can retain staff, we should be able to properly handle permits going forward.
Councilor Broadman wants to know what we are hearing from developers about the increase? Begrudging acceptance. The City is working with stakeholders about things like a phased rollout, which developers really prefer.
Councilor Campbell points out that we are seeing so many issues come up over and over again stemming from past councils choosing to draw down reserves instead of raising fees to keep up with operating costs. We should strive to not do that going forward.
Council, Board, Committee, Commission Discussion
John from the Core Area Advisory Board wants to point out that as interest rates rise and costs of development increase, incentives to encourage development are essential. CAAB strongly encourages the city to incentivize mixed use development in the core area.
The Bend Economic Development Advisory Board (BDAB) understands the need for the permit fee increases. They want to work with staff to monitor turnaround times. We should look at other revenue sources as well. Councilor Perkins says that BDAB has been really involved in things and she really appreciates it.
The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee that houselessness is a top priority. We need to find ways to fund our shelters and increase housing units. AHAC supports the consolidated plan.
Water Resources Update
The City likes to do a water resource update every year around this time. We have been in a drought for several years. The drought situation has gotten a whole lot better than it was last year, but we are still in drought conditions.
Bend's water supply is robust. We have access to both spring and groundwater sources. This is rare and it is great. It allows us to rely on one, if the other has problems. Here is a cute picture of Bend's water system.
Bend's watershed is pretty deep in the cascades, this keeps it separate from people, but does introduce risk from wildfires. The City works with the forest service to try and mitigate this. They are working on setting up a pre-treatment facility. The city is working with the forest service to try and acquire land adjacent to the property. This will take several years.
Here is some data about our wells. We are living on top of a giant aquifer. On the west side of town, we are not seeing any well water declines. On the east side of town we are seeing 1-2 ft/year decline.
Councilor Mendez loves these charts. Councilor Mendez points out that it is important to conserve water in town even though we are a pretty small fraction of the use of the basin, because we are all sharing the same aquifer.
Important Joke: One of these slides has the headline of "2023 Forecast- Dry w/ a chance of Irrigation"
The City has goals around reducing our water use through conservation programs like outreach, water waste code enforcement, and water efficient device rebates. We have a downward trend on our water use per capita over several years, which is great. The City is working with other water providers to coordinate on conservation across the city.
We also monitor water quality. You should see a water quality report in your mailbox in May. Spoiler alert: Our water is amazing. We are doing a check to make double sure we don't have lead pipes to comply with some law from on high.
Forever Chemicals. You've heard of them in the news. It's not good if it is in the water. We do not expect to have them. We did not have them when we last tested in 2014. They are testing again, that info should be available in a few months. We might have a lot in our wastewater though, given that they come from products people make and use.
Councilor Mendez wants to know if we see variability of water quality around town. Generally no. The water is all coming from the same place in the system. There is some variability in the ratio of groundwater and surface water based on geographic location within the system.
Mayor Kebler wants to know if we have looked at revisiting our rate structure to incentivize less use? Yes, the city is somewhere in this process, but it sounds like we're in the early stages. The city needs to make sure whatever fee structure we use provides enough revenue to run the utility, a common theme this year.
TIL we have irrigation hours and you're supposed to only water your lawn on even or odd days, based on our house number.
EDITOR: Tailor apparently doesn't remember me trying to figure out our sprinkler control system last year to make sure we were compliant.
Tailor's Tangent - Let's look at Timber Yard
Well I'm on a break in between the sessions and I feel compelled to look more into the Timber Yard development shown in the first housing slide. It's a big ol' development in-between Crux and the Box Factory. It looks like a preliminary master plan was submitted to the City at the beginning of this month. A hearing about this development is scheduled for the May 8th Planning Commission meeting.
The neighborhood is planned to contain 1,600 dwelling units (including 250 affordable senior housing units), a 180-room hotel, 120,000 square feet of office space, and 70,000 square feet of retail space
Link to the Planning Application
Here is a Bend Bulletin article about it from December.
Picture of the transportation infrastructure planned for the development.
OK Moving on.
Regular Session
The regular meeting began as usual with roll call and Land Acknowledgment. It is Crime Victims Rights Week.
This proclamation highlights the importance of victims’ rights and the role of victim service providers, advocates, law enforcement officers, attorneys, and other allied professionals in helping survivors find justice. The proclamation emphasizes the need to listen to crime survivors and create an environment where they feel heard, believed, and supported. The Bend City Council proclaims the week of April 23 – 29 as Crime Victims’ Rights Week.
Our good friend Stephen Sehgal, a victim’s advocate, is here to accept the proclamation from the DA.
Public Comment
Katie is the CEO of a Homeowners Association Management Company. The Bend Chamber is not happy about the proposed permit fee increase proposal. The substantial increase in fees could make housing projects not pencil.
Morgan is from the Central Oregon Builders Association who is also concerned about the fee increase.
Mayor Kebler says they will be in contact with both of their organizations as they move forward.
Todd won't go through his wordy and lengthy email. I think he is talking about the special events process. He doesn't like street closures.
Jennifer is concerned about the coordinated houseless response office. Homelessness is an emergency. The Strategic plan brought out by the office is not being put out fast enough. The scope of work is too broad.
Consent Agenda: Passed
Notable Items on the Consent Agenda: None
Ordinance Amending Bend Municipal Code Section 1.40.060 Relating to Appeals of Civil Infraction Decisions in Municipal Court
Presentation for the next 3 Agenda Items
This motion changes the civil infraction procedure for the enforcement of City Ordinances. Right now, the code requires judicial review of Municipal Court decisions involving civil infractions to be by writ of review under ORS Chapter 34, but writs of review have been abolished in criminal actions. The proposed change removes this requirement and replaces it with the requirement that appeals be taken in circuit court in accordance with state law.
Motion Passed
Ordinance Amending Bend Municipal Code Section 1.60.015 to remove the requirement that the City Manager submit emergency declarations to Deschutes County
Okay, so this one has some background drama. Kevista Coffee was cited for not following the City's Covid mask rules in December 2020. These mask rules were enacted based on the City's COVID Emergency Declaration. Kevista claimed that the mask rules were invalid because the Bend Municipal code says that in the process of proclaiming an emergency declaration, they send the declaration to the County for "approval". The County only "Acknowledged" the declaration. This argument did not hold up in court. Below is an excerpt of the Court Opinion:
Whatever “for County Commission approval” means, it doesn’t mean that the County Commission’s “acknowledgement” of the City’s COVID Emergency Order invalidated it. Nowhere does the BMC provide that the validity of the City Emergency Declaration under BMC 1.60.015 must depend on whether the County Commission made a record at its meeting using the word “approved,” or any other word, or no word. The phrase “for County Commission approval” could be intended to provide the County Commission the ability to approve or disapprove for its own purposes. But the County Commission does not render the City’s Emergency Declaration invalid.
Four times, Kevista Coffee did not honor the mask rule or mask posting rule. There is no error in the Bend Municipal Court’s denial of Kevista Coffee’s motions to dismiss, or its verdict, or the judgment, because the Bend Municipal Court did not improperly construe BMC 1.60.015. The decisions of the Bend Municipal Court are affirmed.
Very satisfying. Anyways, the City has total authority to issue states of emergency on their own without County Approval, so they are removing this from the Municipal Code.
Motion Passed
Ordinance amending Section 1.50.040 of the Bend Municipal Code to add a process for selling City-owned real property to develop affordable housing
This is an ordinance amending the Bend Municipal Code to add a process for selling City-owned real property to develop affordable housing. The ordinance would allow the City to sell property for affordable housing by a request for proposal process, without creating the process by resolution each time. The proposals would be reviewed by the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC), which would make a recommendation to Council, and Council would make the final decision about which proposal to accept. Any property sold under this program would be required to record an affordable housing covenant.
Prior to selling any real property under the proposed code, the City must hold a public hearing. A request for proposal (RFP) would then be advertised to the community. AHAC’s meeting to review proposals would be public, and Council would make the decision about whether to sell the property at a subsequent public meeting.
The City is able to do this because of a State Law that was passed in 2021.
Motion Passed
Resolution declaring official intent to reimburse expenditures related to property acquisition costs with the proceeds of subsequently issued debt
The City is issuing debt to pay for properties they are buying in the Central District. These properties will probably be used for the new City Hall. This debt allows the City to pay off this large purchase over time, and is pretty much standard procedure. Since the debt and the purchase are not tied directly to each other, this resolution is necessary.
Resolution Passed
Approve findings supporting Progressive Design-Build contracting method for the Midtown Multimodal Connections and Streetscaping project
Council is getting manic earlier in the evening than usual, since we started early. They briefly talked about Council Meeting Charades.
The City wants to use a Progressive Design-Build process for the Greenwood and Franklin Underpasses and Hawthorne Bridge instead of the traditional low-bid procurement process. The progressive design-build process should save money and allow the projects to be completed faster. The City has used a Progressive Design-Build process several times in the past. You can read more about why the city wants to use this process for these projects here.
I love that the design for Hawthorne goes all the way to Juniper Park.
Councilor Campbell wants to ask a question about designing Hawthorne Bridge. Will there be some designs that the Public will be able to choose from? Pretty early for that, but yeah, there will be public outreach further in this process.
Motion Passed
Authorize an agreement with Knife River LLC for the construction of the 2023 Neighborhood Street Safety Program
The Neighborhood Street Safety Program was created in 2019 as a mechanism for the City to improve local city streets. Through an application process, the city identified 360 local street improvement projects. Neighborhood Associations were tasked with prioritizing projects in their neighborhoods, and this resulted in a ranked list of 25 projects. We have been working through these every year since. We are finishing this list next year.
These are the projects selected for construction this year:
Here's a map. Check out the linked presentation if you want to see more details about individual projects.
Motion Passed
Authorize an agreement with AKS Engineering & Forestry, LLC, for the design of the 2024 Neighborhood Street Safety Program (1GLRS)
The City is also contracting for design work for the remaining projects slated for construction next year. Here are the projects selected, and a map:
The selection process for these projects is planned to change starting in 2025.
Councilor Riley says that with the GO Bond Funding, there will be about 3.5 million dollars left to allocate to new projects in the NSSP scope. Councilor Campbell thinks that it will be a good goal to have at least one project in each neighborhood for the rest of the funding. Councilor Norris is personally excited for the Century project.
Motion Passed
Council Action and Reports
Councilor Perkins is looking at the strategic plan with the coordinated office tomorrow. She has been working on that a lot.
Councilor Riley has been participating in the SDC discussion. It has been going pretty well. There is good attendance, people are generally supportive, but he also expects to get more feedback as we get closer to implementing changes. The new landfill is looking at three different sites, Moonpit, and two others with less memorable names. Earth Day is this weekend.
Councilor Norris went to a ECC meeting, there are 5 bills awaiting votes to support the Climate Action Plan. She went to a Neighborhood Association and a Families Action Network event.
Councilor Broadman is just going to pick 3 things. Went to the DBBA meeting, a Building a Better Bend event last night. Thank you to Representative Levy, they tried a Councilor and Coffee event, which was less well attended than they hoped.
Councilor Campbell went to the Bend Central District Business Association Board meeting. They are having an event at Oregon distillers for businesses in the area to connect. We need electric charging infrastructure or the electric fleet requirement is going to be real messy. Also went to COBAC, which is getting new members.
Councilor Mendez met with the Stewardship Subcommittee, the tree preservation code body is going to have 15 members. Saw a presentation on Neighborhood associations. There is a lot of work going into our water reclamation facility.
Mayor Kebler has been doing an "Ask a Mayor" segment on KTVZ, you can submit questions on their website. Something about getting youth more involved in politics. Governor Kotek is urging the legislature to pass more funding for housing and homeless support.
Manager King Update
There were over 350 applications for the e-bike rebate program. There are 75 slots so they will be granted through a lottery. The last part of the Wilson construction is going to have an Open House. 15th and Wilson should open around May 12th. There is a City Manager Forum happening hosted by City Club. Very Exciting.
Meeting Adjourned.