Heavy equipment is used to clear a parcel of land on 15th Street near Wilson Avenue in Bend. 06/25/25 (Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin)

After years of idling, one of the largest infill housing developments in Bend is moving forward.

Excavators began June 19 grading dirt and removing juniper trees at the rugged 33-acre site near the intersection of 15th Street and Wilson Avenue — 10 years after development plans there were first approved by the city of Bend.

Developers will soon begin blasting and crushing rock to prepare the site for home building. That’s expected to last at least until February.

The earthwork is setting the stage for a 518-unit multifamily housing development to be built out over the next several years, including three-story walk-up apartments, townhomes and single-story cottages, along with 1.5 acres of commercial space. It will take nearly two years to build 277 apartment units at the north edge of the property along Wilson Avenue, the first phase of development. None will be restricted to certain income levels.

The number of homes makes Wildflower Master Plan one of the largest master planned communities in Bend, second only to Stevens Ranch, the 375-acre, 1,700-unit development at the eastern edge of the city.

Bend code requires parcels larger than 20 acres to be developed under a city council-approved master plan, which sets the layout for housing, streets, businesses and other infrastructure within a community.

The city approved a master plan for the rugged parcel east of 15th Street in 2015, but it was never developed. Seattle-based Evergreen Housing Development Group bought the property and had new plans approved in 2021.

The group then changed plans to shrink the development. Subsequent amendments lowered the number of units from 585 to 518, based on increased demand for cottage-style homes — and reduced the size of the commercially-zoned property, which is located on the southeast corner of the roundabout at Wilson and 15th. The changes drew mixed reactions from advocacy groups. Some said the development was straying too far from the concept of a “complete community,” a goal of the city council to make neighborhoods more sustainable by placing commercial services within walking and biking distance of housing. Others said the reduction of commercial space shouldn’t get in the way of badly needed homes.

“This is a significant amount of housing. We would like to see these homes under construction as soon as possible,” said Bend YIMBY, a grassroots pro-housing group, in a letter to the city council.

Executives with Evergreen Housing Development Group declined to comment for this story.

Code protects rock formations

Developers at the Wildflower site aren’t required to follow the city’s rules around preserving trees because those standards went into effect after plans were approved.

But a much older development code will protect rock outcroppings at the site.

Developers will have to avoid blasting and grading two upland “Areas of Special Interest” — an overlay in Bend zoning that protects natural formations such as “scattered rock outcrops, stands of trees, and dominant ridges and faults that are typical of the Central Oregon landscape,” according to the Bend Development Code.

At the Wildflower site, the protected areas total 3.3 acres.

“These areas contain high points or changes in elevation that break the line of sight so that the area retains a feeling of undeveloped open space,” the code reads.

The Wildflower development is adjacent to the Larkspur Trail that leads from Larkspur Park to Pilot Butte.