The location of the proposed OSU-Cascades campus in west Bend is sparking divided response from Central Oregonians.

An appeal of a land use decision giving the go-ahead to the proposed OSU-Cascades campus will go before the Bend City Council.

City councilors agreed late Wednesday to hear an appeal filed by opposition group Truth In Site.

The appeal hearing will be held at noon Sept. 29 in City Council chambers. Members of the public who participated in two days of hearings on the proposed campus earlier this summer will be allowed to submit written testimony addressing issues raised during those two days, which must be received by the city by 8:30 a.m. on the day of the hearing. Truth In Site filed its appeal Monday, two weeks after a hearings officer ruled the OSU-Cascades plan to build a four-year campus off Century Drive in southwest Bend complied with city code.

Earlier this summer, hearings officer Ken Helm heard two days of testimony at a public hearing to consider whether the university’s proposed 10-acre campus was in compliance with city code.

The group’s appeal argues that the campus will have a greater impact on traffic than acknowledged in the university’s application, and should have included a master plan for an adjoining 46-acre parcel the university is eying for future expansion.

The OSU-Cascades decision came after the city councilors spent more than three hours hearing testimony and discussing possible curbs on vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods Wednesday night, but were unable to come to any resolution as of The Bulletin’s deadline.

Close to 100 residents filled the council chambers and spilled over into the hallway, many of them opponents of expanded vacation rentals wearing stickers reading “Houses are Homes.”

How many Bend houses are operating as vacation rentals is a bit murky. In a presentation to councilors Wednesday, city of Bend business advocate Carolyn Eagan said she’d identified 321 houses that paid the city’s room tax over the last six months, while Anne Goldner, former head of the River West neighborhood association, said she’d identified 503 — 43 percent of which are owned by non-Bend residents.

Ian Morris, an Albany Avenue resident, said his west-side neighborhood is in danger of disappearing if the trend toward overnight rental housing continues.

Morris said he’s had few bad experiences with vacationers, but the neighborhood has changed drastically.

“The guests we interact with are nice enough, it’s just they’re constant strangers,” he said.

Stephen Junkins, a resident of Federal Street, told councilors the city has failed to follow its own code on vacation rentals, ignoring requirements for off-street parking and permitting nearly 98 percent of applications brought before them.

Lorin Hayden, a resident of Georgia Avenue, said vacation rentals have been good to him — he’s worked on remodeling several, and his mother-in-law lived across the street from him in one for 2½ months when he was ill. Still, he said, they’ve changed his neighborhood and he wants the city to adopt some limits.

“In the words of my kid, ‘Who am I gonna play with, who am I gonna hang out with?’” he said.

Councilor Doug Knight attempted and failed to win over the council to schedule a hearing to impose a moratorium on permitting future vacation rentals in the River West, Old Bend, Century West and Southern Crossing neighborhoods.

“The community is asking for a solution and asking for us to be responsive and I’m begging this council to be responsive, to lead rather than to lag,” Knight said.

Councilors said they were willing to consider possible caps on the number of vacation rentals allowable on a given block, more rigorous permitting, and even a citywide limit on vacation rentals, but feared Knight’s approach would invite a costly legal fight the city would almost certainly lose.

Mayor Jim Clinton expressed regret the council hadn’t seen the vacation rentals issue coming sooner. The code on vacation rentals is “a mess,” he said, and needs to be addressed.

“The code is not working; it’s hammering our neighborhoods its time to do something about it,” Clinton said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com