News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Attorney Liz Fancher has filed an application for city water service to the proposed Les Schwab Tire Store and portions of Pine Meadow Ranch that are slated for development.
According to Fancher, the water service extension is being made at this time so Fancher's clients, PMR Dev., Inc., "can proceed with plans to develop this commercially zoned property." PMR Development has a co-development agreement with Jerry and Janet Taylor, the builders of the Les Schwab store.
The application follows by only a few days a move to prohibit the extension of city services outside the city without a vote of the electorate. Members of an informal group calling themselves the "Committee to Save Sisters" filed applications for initiative petitions that would place two ballot measures, one asking voters to approve a charter amendment requiring city voter approval of all annexations of land, and another that would require voter approval for extensions of city services, such as water, outside the city limits.
Present city policy permits the extension of water service to users outside the city limits providing sufficient water is available to serve all who need it. Users outside the city must, however, pay one and a half times more for their water than city residents. They also must share in the repayment of a loan to Farm Home Administration which funded water system improvements.
Members of the Committee to Save Sisters have opposed the development of portions of Pine Meadow Ranch which presently is mostly in open meadows and ponderosa pines. It is located in the city's urban growth boundary and adjacent to the west city limit and south of McKenzie Highway.
Committee members have appeared before county hearings on requests to remove the portions of the ranch property from a reserve zone and rezone it for commercial, high density and single family residential zones.
The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners is expected to review the zone change request at their July 24 meeting.
Reader Comments(0)