The early phases of construction have begun on an apartment building in southwest Bend that continues to generate concerns in the surrounding neighborhood.

The developers initially applied to construct 15 apartments in two buildings on the ¾-acre site at the eastern end of SW Summer Lake Drive near the Bend Parkway.

They have since scaled back the project, called Summer Lake Apartments in city documents, but neighbors still worry the apartments will increase traffic and congestion.

“The neighborhood is still in the same position,” said Jason Oden, who lives nearby the project site. “It was unfortunate that some single-family houses weren’t built there.”

TJ Toney and Robert Krippaehne applied and were granted approval by the city of Bend to construct the apartments in July.

Toney said Monday that after several meetings with neighbors, the developers decided to abandon an idea to build a triplex consisting of three townhouse-style apartments in addition to a 12-unit building with two-bedroom, two-bath apartments. The project now consists of one building and the 12 units, he said.

“We could have kept our other building in there, but out of respect for the neighborhood we deleted an entire triplex unit,” said Toney.

Nearby homeowners submitted public comments to the city arguing the apartments would draw more traffic and lead to congestion from motorists turning onto SW Reed Market Road from SW Silver Lake.

The property is zoned residential, medium density. Some neighbors contend it should have been zoned to exclude apartment structures.

“All of the surrounding properties are single-family dwellings,” said Kent Fairfield, who lives on Summer Lake. “The property that’s under construction now is not.”

Fairfield said there are also concerns about fire safety because the site has only one entrance/exit.

Toney said the idea for apartments was to provide more housing in the area. The site is about a 15-minute walk to the Old Mill District, and workers there could potentially live in the apartments.

“We thought there would be a really good market for that,” he said.

Toney said the project could be completed by mid-September.

— Reporter: 541-617-7820,

tshorack@bendbulletin.com