Developer seeks OK for 32 homes in Bend

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 9, 2014

Andy Tullis / The BulletinA Hood River investment firm wants city approval to build 32 single-family homes in phase 2 of Tuscany Pines on the north side of Bend.

A real estate investment firm seeks Bend city approval for 32 new single-family homes along O.B. Riley Road on Bend’s north side.

COTD III LLC, based in Hood River, filed paperwork in September to subdivide 5 acres at O.B. Riley and Halfway roads into 35 lots, with plans for 32 homes. The proposal is for phase two of Tuscany Pines; phase one consists of an adjacent townhome project.

“Our desire is to get the approved lots and then sell the subdivision with the approvals,” said AJ Kitt, one of three managing partners. “That’s pretty normal. It’s not our intention to build homes.”

A handful of neighbors who bought townhomes in the first phase of Tuscany Pines objects to COTD building anything other than townhomes in phase two. One, C.S. Colvin, said building single-family homes would lower the value of his and others’ townhomes.

“It’s cheaper to build single-family homes. They want to build small single-family homes,” Colvin said Wednesday. “Then they can conclude their investment in Bend and move on. It has nothing to do with the value of Tuscany Pines and the owners that originally bought in.”

COTD bought the property from Umpqua Bank in June 2009 for $510,000, according to Deschutes County property records. Umpqua Bank foreclosed on the property in December 2008, the same year most of the townhomes were built, according to county records.

The partnership last year sold its stake in phase one for $675,000 to RAB Holdings LLC, whose principal, Fred Boos, of Bend, continues to build townhomes there. Boos by text message Wednesday said he’s interested in buying phase two, but declined further comment.

Other townhome owners wrote the city to say that single-family homes would change the character of the Tuscany Pines neighborhood.

“We believe the townhouse concept seems to favor older residents. Single-family homes would most likely include families with children,” wrote the owners of a townhome on Via Toscana.

Kitt responded that the market in Bend for townhomes is flat, and building more would lower the value of about 15 already there. The original phase two plan called for 54 townhomes, but “through our work and attempts to sell phase one, it was made very clear to us that there’s not a great demand in the Bend market for townhomes,” he said.

He said the new phase two plan creates a buffer between phases and retains the Tuscan style.

A lawyer for COTD wrote the city to say COTD never promised to continue building townhomes.

“In fact, the opposite is true,” wrote Laura Craska Cooper , of Ball Janik. COTD tried for three years to market the undeveloped townhome lots to builders who were not interested, she wrote.

Denying COTD’s plan based on complaints it may attract families with children could be discriminatory, she added.

COTD may be required to improve a pump station on the city sewer system to handle the added capacity, said Russell Grayson, the Bend city engineer.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

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