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City staff will show off three new possible business incentive ideas to the Bend City Council on Wednesday. Two aim to boost housing and one is for employment.

They are designed to avoid some of the controversy that came with the approval of a $10 million tax exemption for the Jackstraw development near the Box Factory in Bend. The complaint was the city was giving away too much for too little.

The city put its incentive programs on pause and city staff went back to the drawing board. On Monday, staff showed off what they came up with to the city’s economic development advisory board.

We are going to skip most of the details about the programs. But for instance, a developer would be eligible for one of the housing incentives if it made a 12-year commitment to offer 15% of units at 90% of average median income and rent increases were kept below what’s allowed in Oregon. A developer would be eligible for the enhanced housing incentive if they meet the criteria for the base policy plus one or more of the following: more than 15% of units offered at the 90% of average median income, units rented below that 90% rate, lower rent increases for more units, meeting energy efficiency standards, supplier diversity. Approval of any incentive would require approval by the Bend City Council.

Members of the city’s economic advisory board were concerned that the city’s offerings were not flexible and adaptable enough. If the purposes are to create housing and to create jobs, they argued the city was adding too many other challenging conditions to meet other city goals, such as around requirements for going green and supplier diversity.

Our concern is the city’s capability to monitor compliance and its ability to claw back any incentives if a development or business fails to meet goals.

City staff are already planning to regularly review these programs, if adopted, to ensure they are working as hoped. And these programs could help create more affordable housing and good paying jobs.

You can find more details here: tinyurl.com/Bendincentive.