While many Bend-area business owners stick around Central Oregon for the quality of life, it doesn’t mean the owners are happy with the business environment here — or feel wanted in Bend.

About 64 percent of 138 business owners who responded to a March online survey by the Bend Chamber of Commerce said “no” when asked if they thought Bend was friendly to businesses. Those owners don’t necessarily think Bend’s city government is unfriendly, said chamber Executive Director Tim Casey, but think the city is indifferent about whether any given business succeeds or fails.

“They don’t feel like the city is going out of their way to take care of businesses,” Casey said.

The chamber only reported the rate at which people responded to certain answers on each of its questions, without providing raw data.

Some businesses noted in the survey that the attitude from the city government has improved lately, but they want to see friendliness toward businesses demonstrated in a more measurable way. Close to 67 percent of the respondents said they don’t think Bend provides enough incentives for existing businesses to expand, or to encourage new companies to come to the area.

And 65 percent of the 138 chamber members who responded said system development charges are limiting to job growth, while almost 55 percent faulted the city’s permitting and planning process. The highest number of people — 72 percent — marked personal income taxes as being detrimental to new jobs.

Casey said the chamber can’t do much to impact income taxes, other than advocate they remain stagnant. He said he plans to analyze this survey with city of Bend officials, however, to find tangible goals to aid businesses in Bend.

“What we’re trying to do is identify what can we actually have an impact on,” Casey said. “Our goal is not to take the survey and demonstrate what a terrible job the city has done. That’s certainly not the case.”

Expansion issues

The city’s planning and permitting process did take the brunt of the criticism in the survey. Not only did many respondents blame it for hindering job growth, but they also portrayed it as hindering expansion in general.

About 107 owners said they had struggled to expand within the past 12 months, with 73 percent of them blaming the planning and permitting process in part for their trouble. Other problems, such as land, loan and commercial space availability, were marked less frequently by survey takers.

Casey said many members say breaks on fees like building, permitting and system development charges would be beneficial — but those fees must be paid by someone, and the survey isn’t suggesting that the city consider getting rid of them, he said. He said many people feel the city’s permitting process is arduous, long and expensive.

“It seems like you’re always in line for something,” William Smith, who developed the Old Mill District, said about the permitting process. “It shouldn’t be that way.”

Eric Strobel, the business development manager of Economic Development for Central Oregon, said he has seen the city make a concerted effort to improve the permitting process, by adding things like pre-permitting meetings for businesses to help streamline everything. He said some concerns expressed in the survey might be from experiences people had two or three years ago, adding that the situation has improved for some companies.

“The direction of the city has changed in the past 1 1/2 years,” he said. “I think there’s a real push for better customer service.”

How the city operated in the past might have played a role in this survey, said Eric King, Bend’s city manager. He said the city has improved the planning department to have a one-stop permitting center, and is working to streamline the complicated development code.

King said the City Council is also actively willing to reconsider policies that people might think don’t work. He said he also has established an ombudsman through his office, for business owners to bring complaints to.

“If you’ve got an issue, please let us know,” King said.

Creating a discourse

What Casey said he wants the survey to do is bring business owners’ concerns to light, creating a discourse with the city. In May, he said he and the chamber staff may send out another survey, and work with city officials like King on unearthing detailed information from business owners.

“We’re going to really dig down deep into this to see what kind of solutions we can come up with to give them some kind of out-of-the-box thinking,” Casey said.

Because this survey was taken during a recession, and the city already “has a big target on their back,” it could mean that some business owners would target more of their frustration toward the local government, Casey said. However, he said he still thinks the survey will help officials understand what is actually happening in the community.

Jeff Cossey, owner of StreamiT, a software development company in Bend, said he thinks local businesses were left by the wayside during the housing boom, while the city focused its attention on real estate instead of developing infrastructure for businesses. He said it’s hard for him to find building space that meets the technical specifications — high-speed fiber optic networks — necessary to operate his business.

Had the city worked to bring more fiber optic providers to Bend during the boom, when it had the money to do so, high-tech firms like his would be much more prone to relocate to Bend. He came to Central Oregon and stays here for the quality of life.

“I still choose to be here,” Cossey said. “We still love Bend. It’s worth fighting for.”

King said he wants the city to use time now — while building activity is down — to proactively look at how to better make infrastructure improvements. He said the City Council will discuss forming an infrastructure committee at its May 5 meeting.

“When activity picks back up, we’re in a much better spot than we were” for building infrastructure, King said.

About 10 percent of the chamber’s membership responded to the online survey, Casey said, adding that he hopes a higher percentage will respond to future questionnaires. He said the survey is the first that asks about the friendliness of the business environment in the city, and was sent out as a way for the chamber to be proactive.

“The Bend chamber is more than just a wine and cheese chamber,” he said.