Westside Church will not build a new preschool on its property, but thanks to an agreement reached with the Newport Hills Neighborhood Association, it will expand its current facility.

The agreement comes after months of mediation between the two groups. The church, which owns nearly 14 acres off of Northwest Shevlin Park Road, filed an application with the city in February 2008 to build a preschool and maintenance facility, as well as an expansion to its existing facility.

But the neighborhood association appealed a city hearings officers approval and then appealed to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, arguing that the area to be used for the child care facility was designated for church park use and the new development would impact the neighborhood.

Now that the groups have reached a compromise, LUBA has remanded the decision back to the Bend City Council, which will be asked at Wednesdays meeting to approve changes to land use approvals and a city code amendment.

The negotiations we had were such that we revised the hearings officer decision to match what we had agreed to, then worked closely with city staff to make sure we were still in compliance with their requirements, said Ron Kampe, the project manager for Westside Church.

Under the Aug. 11 agreement, the church will not build the preschool on the property. It will also move a maintenance building away from the neighbors homes and will change part of the parking lot to mitigate its impact on the neighborhood. In return, the neighborhood association will allow the churchs existing facility to expand, and the church can sell a piece of property to the neighborhood association to use as a small park.

Theres an opportunity to take the 100-foot strip that is bordering the road, and if we can come up with and get cooperative funding, we would very much like to make a park out of it, said Tom Ratcliffe, the president of the neighborhood association. Just a simple park.

Ratcliffe said the mediation took a long time, but he was pleased with how the association and the church were able to communicate.

I think in this last period, indeed, weve gotten together, and I think were all impressed with how well we have interacted and the degree of our agreement on everything, he said. The two groups met numerous times in the last few months, and I think weve worked everything out very well. Were very pleased with the final results.

The biggest sticking point for neighbors, Ratcliffe said, was the preschool and the traffic it might cause, because Newport Hills Drive would have been a main artery for people taking their children to the school.

The church then decided to forgo the preschool, at this location anyway, Kampe said. Theres a need for preschool services in Bend, and the church feels its something they could provide. … So I think its a long-term goal that they have, but theres nothing in the plans currently. If they did move forward with that dream, it would have to be something that would have to come off-site or in a different area.

Kampe said he was also pleased by the agreement between the groups and said he expects the amicable relationship will continue.

Weve talked with the neighbors, he said, and now we plan to get together a couple times a year and to talk about how things are going in both directions.