News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
City planner Neil Thompson is trying to answer a barrage of questions and criticisms from Deschutes County planners regarding the update of Sisters Comprehensive Plan.
"I think a lot of their concerns are misunderstandings," Thompson told The Nugget.
The county, in an 11-page memo, challenged the Sisters plan's finding that available residential lots within the city's Urban Growth Boundary are inadequate for future growth.
"(The finding) states that there are 294 lots available within the UGB and 80 lots in the city limits to accommodate residential development," the memo reads. "This yields a total of 374 lots. At 2.3 persons per household this equals 860 new residents. This accommodates a 100 percent increase in population. How can this be inadequate?"
But Thompson noted that the 80 houses in the city limits are already counted in the 294 in the UGB, which knocks the number of new residents back to 676, which is in line with other city population growth projections.
Though he acknowledged that the plan language should be made clearer, Thompson stands by the finding.
The memo from George Read, director of the county Community Development Department, questioned the statistical backing for many of the comprehensive plan's findings regarding population growth, housing and the proposed expansion of the urban growth boundary.
The county particularly criticized the technical appendix where statistical backing for the plan's findings is supposed to be found.
The county said "data are inconsistent, contradictory and confusing."
But Thompson believes that most of the county's concerns can be readily alleviated.
Thompson was willing to grant that some statistical evidence was unclear.
"I accept that as a valid criticism, that it should be shown in the document with charts and graphs," Thompson said.
Other criticisms challenge the plan's assumption that more and more people will move into the Sisters Urban Growth Boundary as land outside the city becomes scarce.
"The county does not find evidence to support the concept of 'transferred demand' from Tollgate and Indian Ford," the memo reads. "The assumption that people desiring to live ... outside the UGB would be transferred to the UGB is an unsupported assumption."
"It is an assumption," Thompson responded. "And I say it's a reasonable assumption based on what's happening in other jurisdictions (such as Bend and Redmond).
"We've showed, at least in my mind, why these people will move into Sisters," Thompson said. "Where will these people live?"
Thompson acknowledged that the city averaged the growth rate in unincorporated areas with the city's growth rate to come up with an overall projection.
But, Thompson noted, the plan predicts that about 13 years from now, no more growth will be possible outside the city, so all the demand for housing will be within the UGB.
Thompson is drafting a point-by-point response to the county memo, and he hopes to meet face to face with Read and Department of Land Conservation and Development representative Brent Lake to iron out any further questions.
"This may sound trite, but I see this as an opportunity to improve the plan," Thompson said. "And I'm going to take it."
Once the current questions are addressed, the county commissioners must sign off on the plan update before it goes on to review at the state level.
It may be some time before the plan update, which was started in 1991, is in force.
"I would say there's not a chance before the turn of the year," Thompson said.
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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