Deschutes planning commission mulls Sunriver housing proposal

Published 12:00 am Saturday, November 16, 2019

Sunriver Resort wants to build housing for its employees, but some Deschutes County planning commissioners have questions about how the project would be managed to ensure it remained only for employees.

“I completely embrace the concept of what you are doing,” planning Commissioner Jim Beeger told representatives of the resort. “I would like to see you do it right.”

On Thursday, the planning commission heard a request from the destination resort to change the zoning at the Sunriver Business Park to allow for employee housing. Tom O’Shea, the resort’s managing director, hopes to build apartments or dormitories on a 3.25-acre parcel of land that would house about 90 employees.

The project is driven by the resort’s struggle to find housing for the more than 500 employees it hires in the summer to work at the height of tourism season. Because of Central Oregon’s affordable housing shortage, the resort has to find homes to rent for several of the employees, said Steve Runner, the vice president of development for the resort.

“We can’t bring people here and say ‘Good luck! Try and find some place to stay,” Runner said.

But that area of town, which houses businesses, including Camp Abbott Trading Co. and Sunriver Brewing, is meant for industrial and commercial uses. In order for this project to work, the resort is proposing the county rezone the business park to specifically allow employee housing.

The housing would be restricted to employees in the summer and during November and December — the peak of tourism season at Mt. Bachelor ski area. The rest of the year, employees would still get priority, but rooms could be rented out to other people on a month-to-month basis.

“There are no other solutions for employee housing,” said Steven Hultberg, an attorney representing Sunriver Resort. “Creating an apartment complex somewhere doesn’t really solve the issue.”

In general, the planning commission appeared supportive of the idea. But some commissioners took issue with the lack of parking at the site. Current plans only include 33 parking stalls.

Beeger would like the resort to add more parking stalls to the request.

“In the winter time, you don’t want to ride a bike,” Beeger said.

Hultberg said the idea of the complex is that it would be close enough for most employees to walk or bike. Many are college students — often from foreign countries — who don’t come with cars. The resort also provides shuttling services to employees.

Other commissioners also had concerns about how the resort would ensure this complex would be rented to employees. Commissioner Les Hudson raised concerns that allowing nonresort employees to rent it in the off-season could lead to livability issues, and that with new ownership someday, the apartments could be turned into rentals.

“This is simply a text amendment,” Hultberg responded. “The next step is site plan review … that will be for an employee housing structure, and with that comes the restrictions of who can use it, things like that.”

The commission will discuss the proposal again Dec. 12.

— Reporter: 541-633-2160, bvisser@bendbulletin.com