Bend City Council Meeting - July 19, 2023: Work Session and Regular Meeting
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Bend City Council Meeting - July 19, 2023: Work Session and Regular Meeting
The Bend City Council held a hybrid work session from 3:00 p.m. and a regular meeting from 7:00 p.m. on July 19, 2023, at City Hall. The work session included quarterly updates, growth management planning, Juniper Ridge development, transportation fee engagement, Midtown Crossing funding updates, and a middle-income housing pilot program. The regular meeting featured public comment, consent agenda approvals, grant acceptances, and a design contract for the Bear Creek Road and 27th Street project.
Consent Calendar
- Approved minutes from June 21, 2023, work session and regular session.
- Accepted the OLCC Report, EIPD Quarterly Report, and May 2023 Monthly Financial Report.
- Authorized software license purchase from SHI International Corp. not to exceed $255,450 for the 2023–2025 biennium.
- Authorized purchase of two Freightliner 3000 Gallon BXT Tenders and two Pierce Velocity Engines from Hughes Fire Equipment, Inc. not to exceed $3,168,129, plus $120,000 for future upfitting.
- Authorized purchase of four Horton Medic Rechassis Units from Professional Sales and Service, L.C. not to exceed $995,476.
- Authorized Contract Amendment #3 with Jacobs Engineering Group for Awbrey Glen and Westside Pump Station improvements not to exceed $289,307.
- Authorized agreement with Anderson Perry & Associates for NEPA consulting on forest land expansion for the Outback Site not to exceed $236,005.
- Authorized amendment with Northwest Code Professionals for building plan review not to exceed $160,000.
- Authorized purchase of Minor Hot Mixed Asphalt Concrete from three suppliers not to exceed $850,000 for the 2023–2025 biennium.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Multiple speakers criticized the city's homeless camp sweeps, describing them as traumatic, counterproductive, and inhumane. Speakers included residents, service providers, and advocates such as Eric Gardy (Bend Equity Project), Joanne Mina (Human Rights and Equity Commission), and Nicholas Schindler, who argued the sweeps violate constitutional rights. Speakers demanded more shelter, safe parking, and a humane approach. One speaker shared personal experience of homelessness while employed. Some comments were confrontational, accusing the council of harming vulnerable people. The council heard from 12 in-person and online speakers.
Discussion Items
- Quarterly Council- Board/Commission Update: City Manager presented highlights: 60% of 45 actions from the previous biennium were complete; 529 shelter beds (exceeded 500 goal); 886 affordable housing units in pipeline; 150 new child care slots; $31.2 million anticipated external funding for Hawthorne crossing; air traffic control tower fully funded. Permitting process improvements showed progress: building permit first review averaged 35 days (goal met), commercial 90 days (met since March), engineering tier-3 reviews exceeded 45-day goal in June/July due to high volume of large master plans.
- Growth Management Update: Staff (Brian Rankin, Brianne Gale, Damien Cernick) presented housing capacity analysis for 2025–2045. Key points: forecast 45,000 new people and 20,000 additional housing units; current UGB has capacity for 23,000 units; projected residential land need of 240–700 acres depending on housing mix. Climate-friendly area (CFA) study underway (275–350 acres needed to accommodate 30% of new housing); anti-displacement analysis required. State legislation (House Bill 2001/ONA) will mandate housing production targets and mix, reducing local discretion. Staff recommended focusing on housing production strategies and affordability while awaiting state rules, with a two-year work plan starting 2024.
- Juniper Ridge Development & Strategy: Real estate manager Matt Stewart outlined plans to subdivide 200 acres of city-owned light-industrial land into eight tracts for sale, with an RFP targeted for late 2023. Approximately 25 acres proposed for affordable housing under Senate Bill 8. Public Works campus design is 130, with grading starting August 2023 and move-in by end of 2025. Financing: $130M project cost, $128M in long-term debt, debt service $8.5M/year allocated to departments. Land sale proceeds will support general fund and streets operations.
- Transportation Fee Process: Staff (Sarah Hutson) reported that the transportation fee engagement roundtables will begin August 9, 2023, with focus on fee tolerance, program prioritization, and uses. A consultant is developing rate models. Council will set baseline street preservation funding at August 2 work session before roundtable input. Goal to reach decision by end of 2023.
- Midtown Crossing Update: Staff announced approximately $31 million in external grants (including $20M RAISE grant) for the Hawthorne bridge and related projects. The city will reissue an RFP for design services including Greenwood Quick Build, Second Street corridor, Franklin upgrades, and Hawthorne bridge concept design. Construction timeline: Second Street and Franklin in 2023-2025, Hawthorne design in 2025-2026, construction likely 2027.
- Middle Income Housing Pilot Program: Housing coordinator Carrie presented four priorities for the $500,000 pilot: income qualification (80-120% AMI), production now, replicability, and innovation. Four written proposals received: two for rental projects needing gap funding, one for homeownership using mass timber, and one for sewer infrastructure assistance. Application release by end of July, award recommendation to council October 4, 2023. Council expressed interest in direct benefit to residents over indirect market subsidies.
Key Outcomes
- Council unanimously approved the consent agenda (all items A–K).
- Council unanimously authorized acceptance of two grants: $320,000 from Bend MPO for bicycle/pedestrian maintenance equipment, and $932,582 from COIC for shelter operations.
- Council unanimously authorized agreement with HDR Engineering, Inc. for alternatives analysis and design of Bear Creek Road and 27th Street Improvements, not to exceed $1,985,556.
- Council gave consensus to support moving the Coordinated Houseless Response Office (CHRO) to COIC for administration, pending formal approval.
- Council directed staff to proceed with the growth management work plan as outlined, including seeking an extension to align with ONA rules and focusing on housing production strategies.
- Council provided thumbs-up on Juniper Ridge land disposition strategy and public works campus timeline.
- Council indicated preference for the transportation fee roundtables to first address a baseline street preservation fee (to be set at August 2 work session), then discuss additional programs.
- Council agreed to allow staff to continue developing the middle-income housing pilot application with the four priorities, and to return with final criteria and award recommendation.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Let's go ahead and get started with our Fenn City Council work session. I'm gonna kick us off for this is our quarterly update. We are just three weeks into our biennial council goal work plan and budget. So of course, we don't have a big long list of accomplishments to talk about for the first three weeks of this biennium, but we do have a lot of activity that's occurred over the past uh couple of months, um, really since we last met we took the break. So I'm gonna recap a little bit uh broadly with the 2123 council goals because a lot of those projects are carrying forward. Want to spend some specific time and I'll call Colin Stevens up to talk about the permitting process improvements that I know council has been watching very closely. It's part of this uh this biennium as well. Uh and then our focus today is really going to be around uh our growth plans. So there's many different items in our uh council goals and work plan that are related to how BEN's gonna grow in the future. A lot of that's gonna be driven by state policy, um, as well as you know, kind of some of the initial work that we've started with things like opportunity zones and other tools that we've put into place. Housing is a big focus. You're gonna hear kind of that all put together in a presentation just to give you a lay of the land and get some general high-level direction at this point. I think there's gonna be many opportunities for you to provide direction over the next few months. And then Juniper Ridge is another uh area of focus, and there's two different uh prongs here. One is a focus around our own facility needs with a public work facility that we've been talking about, but bigger picture it's about how does the city leverage its land and really follow through with the land disposition strategy that we've talked about for quite some time and getting more of that land out in the market. Uh so we'll give you kind of updates on both fronts. We'll allow for time for our for our board's committees, commissions to share what they're working on, or if there's any reflection on the material that we talk about today, and then we'll actually end and get outside and view our block party trailer. Um you can get a hands-on experience of that and demonstration, and there's some we've invited some community folks as well for that. So that's the agenda for today. Um I'm just gonna recap from the last biennial process. 45 actions, 60% of those actions are complete. They were very discrete actions that are done. 40% of those, the remaining 40% are on track. There's nothing that is needing attention or way behind schedule. But as we talked about in the development of this biennial goal period, most of those projects are continuing forward. Two thirds of them, 72% are just continuing on to this next biennium. All of this information is a lot more detail in the uh that that will be incorporated into our progress report since we're just so early on. Our next progress report in October will be will be much more robust. But the other remaining 28% of the items are really just incorporated into how we operate as a city. So there weren't any that was more of there was a policy action, some high-level goal, and we just incorporated that to how we're doing our work. So here are some of the exciting highlights that I wanted to share with council. Um, and some of this information you can find on our dashboard that we track, and we'll be continuing to update refine our dashboard based on the our uh the projects in this biennium. The one that I really want to highlight is our shelter beds. So we had a goal of 500 uh shelter beds. Uh we exceeded that goal in the biennium with 529. Uh so what has come online over the last couple months includes the Rainbow Hotel or the Franklin shelter is it's also called, um, the Central Oregon villages, the outdoor shelter, as well as a number of safe parking sites. We've been very uh aggressive at promoting safe parking as an option and receiving uh more um hosts for for those sites. 886 units of rent and price restricted or deed restricted affordable housing as we often call it has been funded, permitted, complete, or is um just is is in the pipeline meeting close to meeting our goal of a thousand units. Um projects that were start, it's just a timing issue. So I'm I'm assuming that we'll pick some of those up in this new biennium. 150 new child care slots, so that was funded in it as a direct result of our American Rescue Plan Act allocation. Um big exciting news that was in the press, um, and we'll talk more about this tonight is the Hawthorne crossing overcrossing. We'll talk about that in our in the work session. Uh 31.2 million uh in funding is anticipated from outside sources, which is really exciting. Also on that list is the airport. Uh we're anticipating that the air traffic control tower will be fully funded. Um, in with uh again some earmarking from federal and state funds. And then, of course, public works campus. We'll talk about that some more tonight when we talk about Juniper Ridge.
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