Approval of the 156-acre RiverRim planned unit development (PUD) in January 2001 authorized 456 single-family homes, 40-plus acres of designated open space and a four-acre commercial convenience (CC) site. At that time, the Bend development code (BDC) CC zone included no government uses. In mid-2005, the BDC was revised, and the new CC list of 27 permitted uses (section 2.2.300) added “Government — point of service (e.g. City Hall, library).” However, section 3.6.300.J — “Convenience Commercial Development Standards” — includes a significant sentence: “The (CC) zone is intended to provide locations for a wide range of small businesses and services as a convenience to residents in the neighborhood in which the zone is located.” The DMV, Brookswood Meadow LLC (BMLLC), and the city of Bend have all chosen to ignore this standard.

In April 2007, BMLLC met with RiverRim homeowners and neighbors to present their plans for the CC site in RiverRim. BMLLC listed “typical” merchants they hoped to attract, such as: “Pet store, Hallmark store, furniture store, phone store, hair salon, Mail Boxes Etc., computer store, pizzeria, bank, dry cleaners, tanning salon, florist, photographer, real estate office, restaurants, and grocery store.” These are all compatible with the CC zoning.

BMLLC then submitted its application (PZ 07-305) to the city to develop the site. Of the 27 permitted land uses listed for CC zones, approval for only two was requested: retail sales/service, and restaurants/food service (without drive-through). These two — and only these two CC permitted uses — were approved when PZ 07-305 was finally OK’d in September 2007. The entire plaza layout — including parking — was strictly based upon these two approved uses. Although the code parking formulas required 153 on-site parking spaces, because of the pedestrian and bicycle-friendly design of the plaza, the hearings officer reduced that requirement to 146.

Due to the economy, the completed plaza stood empty for some time. The initial tenant was a Snap fitness center, followed by The Rim coffee shop and Toddles preschool in late 2009. Lovejoy’s Market opened in late spring 2010. These four enterprises were warmly embraced by the neighborhood.

Unknown to the general public, in 2010 the DMV began looking for a permanent Bend site to replace its “temporary” location in an ODOT building at 63085 N. U.S. Highway 97. In early May, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) e-mailed a request for information (RFI) to some 225 recipients. The city of Bend was not notified. In addition to the usual DAS policies dealing with facilities (125-6-010 “Sustainable Facilities Standards and Guidelines” and 125-6-115 “Facility Siting”), the RFI delineated specific requirements for the new Bend DMV field office, as follows:

* 4,000 to 5,000 rentable square feet of office space

* A minimum of 55 visitor parking spaces, including ADA parking adjacent to the office space, as required by code

* Paved inspection space for motorcycle testing and CDL testing (approximately 12,000 square feet)

* Ground level contiguous space is preferred

* The facility must be ADA accessible

* The facility must be properly zoned for government office space

* Located on or near a bus line

* Easy ingress and egress from the parking lot.

These parameters closely reflected the previous DMV field office at 1000 Emkay St., which served Bend well for 19 years!

Shortly after the RFI was promulgated, DAS received an offer for the previous Emkay Street DMV field office, with a lease rate of $1 per square foot. This offer was virtually ignored. Other responsive lease offers were reviewed, two in great detail. One was directly across the street from the new multimodal transportation center at Fourth and Hawthorne Streets, but that was eventually discarded because of unfounded security concerns about the proximity of the bus station and its “unsavory” patrons. On Aug. 27, four more potential DMV sites were viewed, including Brookswood Plaza. Two days later, DAS received a written lease offer from Fratzke Realtors, representing BMLLC, for $1.35 per square foot. Fratzke’s sign touts the plaza as a “neighborhood center!”

Despite the fact that the Brookswood Meadow site fails to meet most of the RFI requirements, on Aug. 3 a letter of intent to lease had been prepared between DAS and BMLLC for the Bend DMV field office site. Contract negotiations were put on a “fast track,” and the final 10-year contract was signed on Aug. 25, 2010. Two or three days later, the public and the city of Bend were finally made aware of the lengthy, covert DAS/DMV effort, which ultimately selected the Brookswood Meadow Plaza as the “permanent” site for the Bend DMV field office.

The DMV is here to serve the taxpayers who pay their salaries and building costs.

The DMV is not tasked to rescue struggling real estate ventures. It must be placed elsewhere to a properly zoned, accessible, nonresidential location.