City Council Meeting Notes 12/06/23
It's the last week of school, and I need to finish making a Townhouse for tonight's YIMBY Middle Housing Gingerbread Contest, so we're going to try and get this one out as quickly as possible.
TLDR:
The first housing development in the Central District got MUPTE approval. The old Les Schwab Tire Center by the Franklin Underpass is going to be transformed into 199 housing units and retail space.
The City is seeking proposals for housing to be built on property they want to sell on 9th street. They are also looking for proposals for 5 lots of commercial/industrial property in Juniper Ridge.
NEFF AND PURCELL IS OPENING NEXT WEEK
Work Session
System Development Charge Methodology and Code Update
The City has been working on updating the Transportation, Water, and Sewer SDCs that developers pay when starting new construction since November 2022. A proposed draft of this code is now available to read on the City's website. I'm not going to go through all of it, because most of you are not Developers, but let's cover the highlights.
Single Unit and Middle Housing Residential SDCs are moving from a flat rate to a tiered fee structure. Smaller homes use less water and sewer and have a lower impact to our transportation system, so developing these kinds of houses will have smaller SDC fees. Larger projects will have a higher fee. On average, the fee is largely the same.
Non-residential Development SDCs were an absolute mess, and it was impossible for someone to easily calculate the SDCs for projects. Projects could fit into more than 60 different land use categories, and these categories were not consistent across different fees. This has been simplified into 23 categories, and they have been normalized across all systems.
The transportation fee for non-residential construction has been tied to trip data, instead of whatever arbitrary reason Council picked 20 years ago.
The Bend Municipal Code has been updated with substantial changes to how the city handles Exemptions, Deferrals, Credits, Appeals, and Enforcement
Right of Way Code Update
The City has lots of roads. Underneath and above these roads are a bunch of pipes, wires, and other infrastructure private businesses use to move water, power, internet and probably other things. Right now, the way the City monitors and regulates these utilities is kind of a mess. The city doesn't actually know where all the stuff under the roads are, and has to negotiate a franchise agreement with every utility separately. The City is changing the process to move from these individual franchise agreements to a franchise code, that would be the same for everyone. Utility companies think the City is moving too fast, and representatives from just about all of them were in public comment today to talk about their concerns. In response to this, the City is having a stakeholder meeting on Monday, to discuss the proposed code, and potentially make more changes.
Regular Session
The regular meeting began as usual with roll call and Land Acknowledgment.
At the beginning of the meeting, the City Council honored the last Pearl Harbor survivor living in Bend, Dick Higgins with a Pearl Harbor Remembrance and Dick Higgins Day Proclamation. He is 102, and I definitely didn't tear up when Councilor Campbell read the proclamation. Read more about him here: From Bend to Pearl Harbor: Survivor Dick Higgins finds his place in history
Consent Agenda: Passed
Updating the parking code to comply with the new version of CFEC
Okay, so today we got a minor update to our parking code to make it compliant with new parking rules coming from the State. There was a minor change to the maximum parking requirements for multi-unit residential, and the tree canopy / solar panel requirements for parking lots.
Public Hearing on a Resolution to Adopt a Procedure and Establish a Program for the Sale of a Class of City-Owned Property and Declaring such Class of Property Surplus to the City’s Needs
Remember when the City tried to build a managed campsite between two schools and near a neighborhood on 9th street and everyone lost their minds? I remember. Fun times. Anyways, today that property is part of a package of properties the City is declaring surplus. The City is opening a request for proposal(RFP) to sell the site, if a proposal is submitted that the Council likes. This property will explicitly NOT be a homeless or emergency shelter, but any other form of housing is on the table. Any proposal must retain public access to the Coyner Trail that passes through the property.
The second batch of properties being liquidated are 5 large tracts of property in Juniper Ridge. These properties are zoned for Commercial and Industrial use. Initially only two tracts will be offered, and issuing an RFP will be contingent on building out the infrastructure needed to bring the other three tracts to market.
This proposal does not include any housing, but there is a sliver of Juniper Ridge that is being considered for affordable housing. A neighboring community took this opportunity to scream about that in emails to the City. After the motion passed, Mayor Kebler took a moment to address these comments:
I just wanted to express some disappointment that we saw folks in the neighboring area get a whiff that affordable housing might be built, write in with some comments that were kind of discriminatory. Somebody for example, said developing low income apartment complexes would not only be a devastating decision for our neighborhood, that it would be unsightly, inconsiderate, and foolish. And I just want to tell people when you write comments like this, you're talking about people in our community. Low income apartments should not be used as a slur. It is not immediately associated with crime or lack of safety, or unsightly or anything like that. And when you're talking about people affordable housing will serve that is a probation officer in our community, a teacher, a paralegal, a social worker, someone who works for BPRD, a nursing assistant or retired grandmother, people on fixed income. So I really encourage anyone who is concerned about change to your neighborhood: I get it. But when you write to us, and you classify a certain group of people as a negative detriment to your neighborhood, you are talking about people. You're not just talking about housing. And so I encourage folks when you are asking questions or advocating for your neighborhood, please remember that because, I will say I don't find it persuasive to tell me you think affordable housing is unsightly, or not sustainable or not attractive, or unsafe, and there's no data to support that either.
I know that these comments don't necessarily represent the majority of our community. They don't necessarily represent all our community values, but I just wanted to point it out. That I don't I don't find this type of language acceptable or a good argument. And when folks are commenting in the future, focus on the real impacts are real concerns and think about that you are talking about people in our community, all sorts of people that need housing, and that we would all prefer to be housed versus living outside or in other bad situations.
Resolution Approving a Multiple Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) for Property Located at 105 NE Franklin Avenue
IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING. A real, actual housing development is going up at 105 NE Franklin Ave, right next to the underpass, where the old Les Schwab used to be. The development is going to add two new 5-story buildings with 199 residential units, and the Les Schwab building will be renovated into retail space. The renderings are fucking gorgeous. Today the project is in front of Council to get the last MUPTE approval they need to get a 10 year tax exemption that is necessary for the project to be viable. They have already gotten approval from Deschutes County and BPRD.
NEFF AND PURCELL IS OPENING NEXT WEEK
Just thought you should know.
Councilor Campbell Story Time: The agreement between the City of Bend and the Rural Fire District saved my husband's life
This story has been highly edited for brevity and entertainment.
Once upon a time like two weeks ago, Councilor Campbell's cute and reckless husband was walking their cute and dumb dog at a very clearly specified location along the river outside of town. Her cute and dumb dog fell into the river, and her cute and reckless husband jumped in after it. The water was too deep and too cold for him to get out, so Barb's cute, beloved family started dying. Luckily, a marine and a lady person happened to walk by. The smart, strong, and probably also cute marine found a branch and fished the cold shivering duo out of the river. This is also a fun time to mention that the two were on their first date. What a fun story to tell their future grandchildren. The lady person called 911, and emergency services arrived very quickly. They took Barb's husband to the hospital, and waited with her dog until she arrived. Without an agreement between Bend's fire department and the Rural Fire District, emergency services may not have made it in time.
Meeting Adjourned.
This only took three non-meeting hours, not bad!