News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A one-way couplet won't be part of Sisters' plans for the immediate future.
A joint workshop of the Sisters City Council and the city's planning commission October 29 concluded that language proposed by the Oregon Department of Transportation that would have allowed for a couplet should be removed from the city's comprehensive plan.
The possibility of a couplet was reintroduced last month after ODOT was asked to comment on the plan. The agency submitted seven pages of suggested additions, including language that would have allowed a couplet and that "changes in specific alignment of proposed public road and non-state highway projects shall be permitted without land use review."
A couplet was rejected by the citizen's committee that initially designed the transportation element of the comprehensive plan update, begun in 1990, and by the Sisters City Council.
The draft of the transportation element that City Planner Neil Thompson presented to the workshop modified ODOT's suggestions but left in the proposal for "alternative couplet alignments".
"I think we should look the word couplet in the face and not be afraid of it," Thompson said. "It's not a taboo, it's a word and I don't think we should be afraid of it."
Thompson argued that ODOT's realignment of the east end of Hood Avenue to a near 90-degree turn when the Sisters Pumphouse was built made construction of a couplet impossible.
"I interpreted that to mean that ODOT was throwing in the towel on that," Thompson said.
Several Sisters residents did not agree.
Leslee Bangs, a former Sisters city planner, argued that Sisters needs to protect itself from being subject to ODOT's agenda.
"As a citizen, I am somewhat cynical about ODOT," Bangs said. "I think you have to look at what they are trying to accomplish, which is to move traffic as quickly as possible. We may have very different interests."
Bangs also urged planners to document traffic counts and delineate traffic routes specifically in the plan.
James Massey, an attorney and property owner in Sisters, argued that the provisions ODOT wants in the plan could jeopardize local control of Sisters' transportation needs.
"I read those (recommendations) taken together as ODOT wanting the envelope pushed to have maximum authority to do what they want without land-use review," Massey said.
"As a property owner, I think it stinks. As a citizen and a property owner, I would urge the city to do the opposite and retain the maximum amount of control in Sisters."
Planning commission members and city councilors agreed that Sisters should retain the power of land-use review.
Planning commission president Daryl Carper said that the state Land Conservation and Development Commission, which will review the comprehensive plan update, would never reject the plan because Sisters insisted on local control.
"I don't think LCDC or anyone else can knock us down for having our own review," he said.
Thompson said he was instructed to remove all references to a couplet from the plan and to eliminate the ODOT approval process that was perceived as circumventing land-use review.
Thompson also agreed to incorporate the documentation and specific delineation of traffic routes proposed in the work session. The planners also acknowledged the need to make the text of the plan and the transportation map agree with each other.
The planning commission will work on the proposed changes at their regular November 20 meeting at 7:30 p.m. at city hall.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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