The company that proposed to rezone a 100-year-old cemetery in Bend for housing is scaling back the effort to include only vacant land next to the graves.

Oregon Care Group LLC, owner of the Greenwood Cemetery, submitted a final planning application to the city of Bend on June 7, requesting the city rezone 6.5 acres from public facilities to medium-density residential.

The land lies just west of where more than 5,000 people are buried, including Bend’s first undertaker and the man who drew the city’s first property lines.

The company’s altered proposal follows a controversial pre-application process in 2023, when the entire 16-acre property was included in the zone change. Many residents of the neighborhood feared that would result in development on a historic burial ground.

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Bend’s century-old Greenwood Cemetery could be re-zoned for residential use

But it was never the company’s intention to build homes on top of the dead, said Adam Smith, a lawyer with the Portland-based firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. The company first proposed the change to comply with the rules of the public facilities zone — which doesn’t explicitly include cemeteries.

The cemetery is situated just southwest of Pilot Butte State Park and west of Bend’s public works building.

Now that the city is taking steps to add cemeteries to the list of uses in public facilities zones, there is no need for a zone change on that portion of the property, said Smith, who represents Oregon Care Group.

As for the 6 acres without graves, Smith told The Bulletin on Tuesday: “There have been exploratory considerations of what redevelopment would look like, but there are not firm plans.”

In January, Oregon Care Group began to clear trees from the vacant portion of the property without prior approval, prompting the city to halt the work.

A zone change would require a public hearing and approval from the Bend City Council. The application has not yet been assigned a hearings officer. On Monday, the city requested that Oregon Care Group provide proper documentation of a neighborhood meeting, which is required in the city’s pre-application process.

Oregon Care Group never submitted an official application with the city until this month, said Heidi Kennedy, senior planner with the city of Bend.

At the pre application meeting held in December, many neighbors of Greenwood Cemetery expressed concern over what the zone change might mean, according to previous reporting by The Bulletin. Some put up yard signs “Save Greenwood Cemetery.”

Even with the scaled-down zone change, neighbors have remained wary, requesting in letters to the city that the company restart the application process and host another neighborhood meeting.

Smith said Oregon Care Group is not opposed to another meeting with the neighbors, so long as it doesn’t delay the application.

“There’s nothing to hide on this project,” he said.