What should the Board of County Commissioners do with 500 acres of valuable land on the west side of Highway 97 less than a mile north of the city of Bend? While this land belongs to all the citizens of Deschutes County, the three commissioners will decide its fate. The Board could secure state grant funding this fall to evaluate making the property into a park with a campground. It’d be good to explore this.

The property on the north side of Ft. Thompson Lane is 500 acres of rolling juniper woodland and native grasses and shrubs. Rocky outcrops across the area offer nice views of the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson. The property is larger than Tumalo State Park (330 acres) and smaller than Smith Rock State Park (641 acres), with room for 8-10 miles of trails and a campground with 100-150 campsites on a handful of acres. The property has easy access to Bend, Tumalo and Redmond, and to recreational attractions like Tumalo and Smith Rock State Park, the Phil’s and Maston Trail systems, Newberry National Monument, Badlands Wilderness, Riley Ranch Preserve and Shevlin Park. There’s room for city park amenities like play fields and picnic shelters if demand justified the investment.

What could happen to this property if it doesn’t become a park? Land in this region of the county is in high demand. Less than a mile south of the property, the new Costco is under construction and hundreds of new homes are planned north of Cooley Road. Just south of Ft Thompson Lane, Commissioner Patti Adair tried to help a private landowner develop a several hundred site mobile home park in 2023. When they ran into zoning and land use restrictions, Commissioner Adair asked state Sen. Tim Knopp to introduce a bill, SB 673, to override the restrictions and authorize construction.

The 500 acres of county property is currently zoned exclusive farm use (EFU), but that can be changed. Less than a mile north of the county’s 500 acres, my fellow commissioners have voted to re-zone multiple properties from EFU to rural industrial use. They also recently voted to re-zone 40 acres adjacent to the county’s 500 acres on the west from EFU to Rural Residential 10. So if the 500 acres doesn’t become a park and campground it won’t remain 500 acres of open space sitting behind a barbed wire fence for long.

Nearby neighbors have a lot of questions about the proposed park with a campground. What would it look like? Where would the campground and the trails be situated within the 500 acres? How would campers and park visitors access the property? Is there really sufficient demand for campsites to make a park with a campground economically viable? How would construction of the park and campground be financed, how much debt service would be required annually, and would campground revenue cover the debt service and operations? Would building recreational facilities here encourage unauthorized homeless camping to cross Highway 97 from dirt world into the park and campground? Or would developing a park and recreational campground with $40-50 per night sites discourage homeless camping on the 500 acres?

The best way to get answers to most of these questions would be to secure an Oregon State Parks County Opportunity Grant to do further planning and analysis. We have a 2023 feasibility study and data from nearby campgrounds that indicate there will be substantial demand for campsites at this location. But we need a more detailed plan to answer what it will look like, where things will be located, and whether it is economically viable. On unauthorized homeless camping: Park and recreation planners can tell you that positive use of an area, plus on-site park managers, will discourage negative uses.

Can’t the property just stay the way it is? With all the development proposals, construction, and rezones happening nearby the answer is likely no.

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