In 1972, a housing development was born along the Deschutes River in Bend. Woodriver Village catered to mobile home owners and offered them the chance to buy the land underneath their homes rather than rent it.

More than 35 years later, the neighborhood — just across the street from Farewell Bend Park — still counts many mobile homes, but they are slowly being replaced with traditional, “stick-built” homes. Considering the neighborhood’s location and its amenities, it’s easy to understand why Woodriver Village is a neighborhood in transition.

“You can be on the west side, build a custom home, you can cast a fly line four minutes from here, you can live in the pon- derosas and you can ride your bike to shopping,” said new resident Hunter Dahlberg. “It’s the best neighborhood in Bend.”

Dahlberg is at work building a 1,000-square-foot custom home in the neighborhood on a quiet, curving street shaded by towering junipers and pines. Blue jays squawk and squirrels scurry by as Dahlberg surveys his 12,000-square-foot lot, which includes a 1,100-square-foot detached garage he’s building with lumber salvaged from an old barn.

Next door is an aged mobile home, with another across the street. Though Woodriver has a reputation for being a trailer park, it’s not altogether true, Dahlberg said, as the neighborhood is drawing investors and builders ready to build new homes like his.

“It’s definitely a growing trend,” said Dahlberg, who purchased his property last year. “Drive around, and you’ll see lots of demolished lots and new construction.”

According to Gary Loggan, a longtime resident and former secretary of the neighborhood’s homeowners’ association, Woodriver Village was originally platted with 148 lots. They were large lots, in sizes of a quarter-acre or more, Loggan said.

Mobile homes dominated most of them, and as the years passed, residents erroneously came to believe stick-built homes weren’t allowed, he said. The first stick-built home went up in 1992, built by Loggan.

The community’s reaction to his new home was muted, Loggan said, as at least two-thirds of the neighborhood’s owners had moved away. Renters moved in, and the neighborhood’s complexion changed.

‘Worse and worse’

Crime and drug use increased, and the neighborhood no longer felt safe, said Randy Mahaney, who grew up in Woodriver Village.

“In the ’80s, it was more elderly people in here and retirees, and my parents had retired in here,” Mahaney said. “In the early ’90s, it got a little more rough … and the retirees were getting tired of it getting worse and worse, but now the property is worth way more than the mobile homes on them.”

Mahaney moved away but returned a few years ago, building a new multistory home directly across from Farewell Bend Park that is one of the most visible signs of the neighborhood’s transition. Mahaney said he moved back partly because of his familiarity with the area. The recent completion of Farewell Bend Park and The Old Mill District made the return even easier, he said.

For many years, Woodriver Village was an isolated county enclave within city limits, with Woodriver Drive its only entrance. The city annexed the neighborhood in the early 1990s, Loggan said.

Several years later, the city worked with residents to replace their septic systems with sewers. The neighborhood’s roads were paved after the sewer project was finished.

These all contributed to the neighborhood’s growing valuation, Loggan said.

The size of the lots, which can be easily subdivided into smaller lots, also helped. Loggan said recent subdivisions have pushed the number of lots in the neighborhood closer to 160. He estimates 15 of them have traditional homes on them, with more planned.

Dahlberg purchased a subdivided lot from a builder who purchased two lots and split them four ways. Dahlberg appreciates the fact that he was able to acquire a smaller lot. But at the same time, he worries that if every owner subdivided, the neighborhood’s character would be drastically altered.

“All the trees will fall, and every single mobile home will get ripped out and replaced with vanilla homes,” Dahlberg said.

A transition period

Longtime resident Bill Nesbet, who lives in a mobile home on one of the two lots he owns in Woodriver Village, doesn’t want to see cookie-cutter homes in the neighborhood, either. Some development, though, in the form of custom homes, would help clean up the neighborhood and increase property values, he said.

“We’re gonna end up with a hodgepodge down here, but I can understand why,” Nesbet said. “It’s kind of a transition period, everyone envisioning million-dollar homes.”

When he first encountered the neighborhood in 1997, Willamette Valley retiree Frank Jacobsen said the place was a dump. His son, a builder, kept mentioning it, and Jacobsen said he soon came to realize the neighborhood’s potential.

Since moving to Woodriver Village three years ago, Jacobsen has owned three different lots. He lives in a mobile home on one lot, while he awaits construction of his new stick-built home to begin on the lot he owns next door.

Jacobsen said he has yet to encounter resistance from any residents about his plans, partly, he believes, because most of the neighborhood’s owners are speculators or out-of-town residents with plans to one day build in the neighborhood. The more traditional homes that go in, the more property values will rise, Jacobsen said.

“I think there would be tons more homes in here if the economy didn’t do what it did,” Jacobsen added.

Just down the street from Jacobsen is the stick-built home of Quinn and Myra Hollibaugh. The two bought the property in 1983 for $30,000 but finally got around to building a home on it last year.

Quinn Hollibaugh said the neighborhood is safe, and that he’s happy with its proximity to the park and the river.

“This ground down here, it’s some of the most valuable property around, with the river right here,” he said. “The problem is, they are doubling up homes on lots.”