The development of the new campus for OSU-Cascades is underway in west Bend.

After much controversy, name calling and legal hurdles, the school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2016. Though this seems a “fait accompli” there remain many unanswered questions and myriad problems the new school will eventually need to address.

The elephant in the room is still the lack of a master plan for the full build-out of the university. OSU-Cascades has managed to dodge this responsibility by cleverly starting construction on a small (10-acre) site even though everyone understood that the final campus would be a minimum of 56 acres and possibly as large as 140 acres.

City building code does not mandate a master plan on such a small parcel. However, the Bend City Council could have interpreted the statute in a way that would have made this an exception to the rule. In my opinion, the council did a disservice to the community by not demanding a master plan from OSU-Cascades for the full scope of the campus.

The council should immediately modify the building codes for future large-scale projects so that any new development will be required to be fully transparent regarding the potential impacts to the community. As we stand today, OSU-Cascades will have completed Phase I on the 10-acre site before being asked to present a master plan for the full project. This is wrong and should be corrected by the Bend City Council.

Another troubling issue facing OSU-Cascades is where and when they will expand. We’ve heard that the adjacent pumice mine site (46 acres) and the old landfill to the north (about 70 acres) are both viable options for the campus expansion.

An engineering firm hired by OSU-Cascades has determined that the pumice mine is “unique” but could be developed after spending $7.6 million to “remediate” the site. Remediation is an engineering term for filling a large hole with dirt followed by extensive packing and grading.

Since the original price of the 46-acre parcel was $7.8 million, that means that the school will have spent more than $15 million before dormitories and classrooms are constructed.

It should be noted that engineers not associated with OSU have determined that the costs for remediation would be much higher than the school is reporting. Oregonians may differ in opinion as to fiduciary prudence of this use of taxpayer dollars.

OSU-Cascades Associate Vice President Kelly Sparks recently was quoted in The Bulletin stating: “We have made our decision, and we are legally entitled to build a campus.” Arrogant and dismissive statements like this only serve to divide the community and curtail input from concerned citizens. Further, if their rationale for building in the current location is purely a legal one, that’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the construction site.

People living on the west side of Bend are already very aware that a university is being wedged into an already balanced residential neighborhood. What we really need to have is information on how OSU-Cascades plans to expand and a master plan detailing impacts to our neighborhoods caused by increased traffic, modified bus schedules, student housing needs, student transportation and other issues that affect the general livability of the west side of Bend.

OSU-Cascades, remove the elephant in the room. Only by exercising full transparency will you get meaningful community involvement.

— Bill Eddie lives in Bend.