For years, Derek Stevens has watched the Bend City Council operate from the sidelines. This election season, he wants to make it into the starting lineup.

Stevens, the 42-year-old owner of Yankee Design and Building LLC, is a political aficionado. As a child growing up along the Massachusetts coast, Stevens was glued to the Watergate hearings on television.

In 1997, Stevens came to Bend and made his entry into Bend city politics through historic-preservation work. He served on the Des-chutes County Historical Landmarks Commission, worked to update the city’s historic code and served as a member of the committee to decide how to commemorate the torn-down crane shed.

With an office in Bend’s downtown and a home right outside the downtown core, Stevens has watched the downtown develop and is a strong supporter of it.

Stevens ran for City Council four years ago, raised little money and lost. Even before the council race kicked off this spring, controversy sprung over Internet postings Stevens made. With a change in how the city’s election system works, Stevens said he looks forward to running a campaign that matches him up against one candidate as opposed to six.

Q: Do you think the city should continue its rapid growth if it can’t keep up with its infrastructure?

A: We have no choice but to allow growth. There is no mechanism in place to stop growth. There has been talk of the (Infrastructure First Initiative) that people are trying to put together. There is a logic behind that, but I don’t know that bringing forward an initiative isn’t what the city should be doing already, which … is planning ahead before development to make sure the infrastructure is there.

It’s having a plan in place before allowing complete development of every area and looking at it ahead of time and how it relates to the expansion of the urban growth boundary. We need to plan before we act, and we haven’t been doing that for a long time.

Q: Do you think the city should increase taxes or fees to better fund its roads, streets, water and sewer system and public transit?

A: Fees yes. Taxes no. … This isn’t going to be popular with developers, but you know what, as a builder I know that developers have been making good money for the last decade.

I think (system development charges) should be increased. … Rather than tell a retired couple who are living on a fixed income that they are going to need to foot the bill, let’s let those who are making the money and producing the impact foot the bill.

Q: Has the City Council done too much or too little on the affordable housing problem?

A: Actually, both. They have done too little inasmuch as we don’t have an inventory of affordable housing for people coming here.

They have done too much in going in the wrong direction with subsidies to the affordable housing project slated for next to the (new downtown) parking garage. It is the wrong place. The land is too damn expensive, and we are leaving money on the table rather than picking a spot where affordable housing could actually be built for an affordable rate. I have suggested that the old Bulletin site (on the north end of the downtown) actually be used for an affordable housing project.

The city is not looking at logical fixes to the affordable housing problem. It’s the same thing with the mobile home ordinance. I have a huge problem with a mobile home ordinance that penalizes a landowner for wanting to do something different with his land. I think that with the possible approaching expansion of the urban growth boundary, why not look at creating a subzone for mobile homes, one that people go into it knowing it is going to be for mobile homes.

Q: Do you agree with the direction the City Council is heading on Juniper Ridge?

A: No, I would go back to the initial concept, which was handed and fed to us, that we need industrial land because businesses are turning their back on Bend and we are letting jobs go to other communities.

If that is the case, then keep it as industrial land. If we need a residential component to be part of the community at Juniper Ridge, alter the (urban growth boundary) and create an expansion ring around Juniper Ridge of housing as a buffer to the neighborhoods that are there.

I doubt wholeheartedly that we will ever see a university with Juniper Ridge. There are universities going bankrupt, not expanding right now.

Q:Why are you running for City Council?

A: I feel it is every person’s responsibility, both to the democratic process and to their community, to step up and do what they think they can. As the voters will say in November whether I am on track or not, I offer myself up as a candidate for City Council.

Derek Stevens

Age: 42

Residence: 429 N.W. Georgia Ave., Bend

Family: Wife and 10-year-old son

Employment: Owner of Yankee Design and Building LLC

Education: High school graduate

Experience: Two years as chairman and five years as a member of the Deschutes County Historical Landmarks Committee. Member of the crane shed memorial task force ad hoc committee. Representative on the stakeholders advisory committee for Bend 2030. On the board of directors for the Bend Downtowners Association. A member of the ad hoc committee for the Bend historic code review. Worked with city staff to rewrite the historic code. Part of a citizens group that reviewed the draft of the city’s development code. 27 years in carpentry and historic restoration work.