4-story apartment building proposed near Bend Whitewater Park

The city of Bend hasn’t yet received a formal application from the Seattle-based developer of a proposed four-story apartment complex near Bend Whitewater Park, but neighbors are opposing it, and a local developer has retained an attorney to try to force a public hearing on the project.

The proposed apartments, like most development in Bend, will likely qualify for a simple approval process in which city staff review the plan and decide whether it meets city code. That process does not involve a public hearing. But people who live near the proposed apartments and Old Mill District developer Bill Smith want a public hearing, and Smith recently hired a land use attorney, Liz Fancher, to push for it.

“The building that they’re building is way out of scale,” Smith said. “It would just create parking nightmares for us.”

While Evergreen Housing Development Group hasn’t finished its plans, a company representative told neighbors during a March meeting that it planned to build 181 total units, 105 of which would be studio apartments. Another 63 would be one-bedroom apartments; 11 would have two bedrooms, and two would have three bedrooms.

During the meeting, Andrew Brand, Evergreen’s executive director of development, said the apartments would provide 199 off-street parking spaces and count on 25 on-street spaces along Bradbury Way and Shevlin-Hixon Drive.

Because of the location near the Deschutes River, the Old Mill District and downtown, the apartments would be some of the most expensive in Bend, Brand said at the meeting.

To YIMBYs, or people who take a “yes in my backyard” approach to housing, adding new homes, no matter how expensive they are, can help alleviate the city’s housing crunch and lead to lower rents. It’s a theory borne out in places such as Seattle, where the Seattle Times reported in January that rents began dropping for the first time this decade after supply finally outpaced demand.

David Welton, who started Bend’s YIMBY group, said it helps to think of housing like cars. Most people won’t buy a new car for their first vehicle, but if new cars stopped being produced, used cars would get much more expensive and the people who rely on cheap older cars couldn’t obtain them. Similarly, if there are fewer housing choices, rich retirees moving to Bend would be able to afford homes, but people who work here might not, he said.

“With housing supply, anything helps, really,” Welton said. “Housing is a good like any other.”

The proposed apartments by the whitewater park could free housing elsewhere because some people might choose to move to the newer apartments in a nice area of town, Welton said.

But Larry Crawford, one nearby resident with concerns about the project, said he didn’t think just building more homes would help.

“The way they describe it, it’s like musical chairs,” Crawford said. “People moving out of one place and moving into another.”

Crawford and his neighbors stressed that they’re not opposed to all development on the property, a nearly 3-acre lot on Colorado Avenue between Shevlin-Hixon Drive and the Bend Parks & Recreation District’s Pavilion. He said they want a public hearing on the project.

Bend has four levels of review for land use decisions. The first applies to simple permits — things like adjusting a property line or adding an apartment above a garage. City staff does not have discretion in approving or denying those applications, and they don’t require public notification.

Most development falls into the second level of administrative review. The city notifies property owners within 250 feet of the proposed development, posts a sign on the property and sends a letter to the land use chair of the area’s neighborhood association. Larger developments, like the proposed apartments, must hold a neighborhood public meeting before applications are filed.

Decisions on these applications are made by staff, and the city doesn’t hold public hearings for them. However, residents can send letters about the projects that become part of the public record, and anyone can appeal a decision.

Bend Community Development Director Russ Grayson and Planning Manager Colin Stephens also can decide to elevate these decisions to the third level of application, which requires a public hearing before the city’s planning commission or a hearings officer. In the case of these proposed apartments, Stephens said one thing that could prompt a public hearing is the existence of a master plan in the Old Mill District. The city would need to see a final application and compare it to the Old Mill master plan to check if they conflict, he said.

If Grayson or Stephens decides the proposed apartments merit a more extensive public review process, or if anyone appeals a decision, there’s a chance the application could go before the Bend City Council. That means city councilors legally have to be careful about discussing the project or doing anything that could make them biased for or against the apartments.

Residents, including Jenny Sheldon, ran into this when they tried to talk to the City Council about the project last week and were encouraged to talk to Grayson instead. Sheldon said it felt like they were being stonewalled by the city.

“It’s like the city’s afraid for the general public to have input on anything,” Sheldon said. “If everybody can weigh in, we’re going to be happy.”

Cheryl Dix, a retired city planner who lives near the proposed apartments, said the apartments will probably conform in most ways with city code. But nearby residents still should be able to weigh in on the project without having to pay for an appeal, she said.

Dix suggested that city planners have an inherent conflict of interest because their department is supported by development fees. It’s common for city and county development departments to get at least some of their funding from fees.

“It doesn’t change how we do our work,” Grayson said. “It’s just a policy decision on how we fund our department.”

— Reporter: 541-633-2160; jshumway@bendbulletin.com