The Bend City Council is set to approve a plan Tuesday that would open up new commercial development near St. Charles Bend.

The council on Sept. 18 gave preliminary approval to the planto modify Bend’s medical overlay zone, a roughly 80-acre area surrounding the hospital, zoned in 2004 to encourage medical-related businesses to set up there.

The idea is to give a group of local property owners the go-ahead to build a restaurant and possibly a retail building on four acres they own at the corner of Northeast Neff Road and Medical Center Drive, across the street from Bend Memorial Clinic. The group includes two Bend physicians and two real estate brokers, who proposed developing the land earlier this year.

The overlay zone change isn’t final. Though the council is required to give it a second reading before any development can move forward.

But city approval is likely, said Wendy Robinson, a senior planner with Bend’s Community Development Department. City councilors are expected to give it the go-ahead Tuesday.

“I don’t see any reason why (the proposal) wouldn’t be go-ahead, because the City Council approved it unanimously” on Sept. 18, Robinson said.

When the city first established the medical overlay zone, it included a pair of four-acre parcels — one north of Neff Road and one south of it — that would remain open for general commercial use, like restaurants or convenience stores.

Despite those exceptions, most of the area was developed by medical companies, leaving a shortage of food and retail options in the area, Robinson said.

It’s unclear what exactly the development group wants to do with the property. Steve Toomey, principal broker with Compass Commercial Real Estate Services and one of the property owners, didn’t immediately return a message from The Bulletin on Friday.

Planning documents filed by the development group in June outline a proposal to construct two buildings on the property: One would be a roughly 8,300-square-foot retail building, while the other would be a 14,000-square-foot medical office, based on the June documents.

The area has seen a wave of construction projects over the last year, including the new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs building on Courtney Drive, new medical offices and a nursing home.

Granting the exception could reduce vehicle trips out of the area by providing retail and dining opportunities for hospital employees, Bend Planning Commission members said, according to official notes from an Aug. 12 public hearing on the issue.