The city of Bend has made great strides to increase housing production so more residents can access stable housing they can afford. We commend the city on increasing permitted densities, working to expand Bend’s urban growth boundary and championing the need for more homes.

The city must keep up momentum to increase supply and lower housing costs. But aspects of the tree code recently adopted by Bend City Council will do just the opposite, and instead make building houses–especially affordable and workforce housing–more expensive.

We anticipate that the new code will likely cause a range of undesirable effects on housing, including:

• Inefficient infill of existing large residential lots
• Increased costs and inefficiencies with new subdivisions because now when a plat is filed builders must inventory Regulated Trees and designate which one will be preserved despite that home locations are not normally known when plats are filed
• If tree preservation standards cannot be met because trees grow where houses should be placed, there will be added costs for planting replacement trees or paying mitigation fees. These costs will make it difficult – or even impossible – for nonprofit, public and private developers to make affordable housing pencil.

There are other punitive and costly provisions in the code, as well. For example:

• The city dictates street construction standards for subdivisions including right-of-way widths, asphalt widths, and sidewalk widths. Trees removed to construct these streets must be mitigated. In other words, the City requires these trees be removed, but the homebuilder bears the cost to mitigate them.
• Required street trees planted within the public right-of-way do not count as replacement trees.
• The tree code is out of sync with the city’s density requirements, which were recently increased–a good thing for housing in Bend. But trying to meet both tree preservation and density standards will almost certainly force developers and builders to pay mitigation fees or simply not build homes they otherwise would have. Either way, this will result in fewer and/or more expensive homes.

This code is disappointing in a city where housing costs remain some of the highest in the nation. Our leaders’ greatest goal should be to make homebuilding easier and more affordable, not more difficult and expensive.

We also all know community members forced to move to outlying areas because of housing costs in Bend. This tree code counteracts the climate change benefits it purports because displaced employees who cannot find housing must then drive to work in Bend, creating CO2 emissions.

Instead of studying these issues prior to passing the code, City Council decided to look at the effects after a year and make changes if harmful impacts are determined. However, criteria by which the code will be evaluated have not been established. The City Council who passed the code should also set evaluation standards before the end of its term on Dec. 31, 2024.

As colleagues representing building and pro-housing advocacy communities, we are united in asking the current Council to finalize evaluation criteria for the code, including:

• Has the code increased the cost of residential development and by how much?
• Has the code led to fewer homes being built?
• Has implementing the code increased permit review times, therefore increasing the daily interest cost incurred by builders on the capital required to fund homebuilding?
• Have building permit and subdivision application fees increased to pay for added staffing to administer the tree code, including a staff arborist?
• Has the code prevented loss of trees, or were trees cut at the same rate, with builders simply paying payments-in-lieu fees–creating a new revenue stream for the city?

We all share a desire for a livable community. Green space and an urban tree canopy help make Bend special. But we must understand how this major city policy is affecting housing costs. Bend families struggling with affordability are depending on city leaders to honestly evaluate the impacts of this code and act accordingly.

Kirk Schueler is president and CEO of Brooks Resources. Jesse Russell is CEO and Founder of Hiatus Homes.

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