News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
New streets should go in this spring and houses could spring up this fall in the residential area of Pine Meadow Ranch.
Deschutes County Hearings Officer Karen Green approved PMR Dev Co.'s application for a 127-lot subdivision and planned-unit development on 51.3 acres of open meadow at the west edge of Sisters.
Opponents of the development expressed concern about the project's impact on mountain views, traffic, and the character of Sisters' neighborhoods.
Green noted that PMR Dev Co. has proposed to protect views and that "opponents have not stated why these measures are inadequate."
"I must conclude that the essence of opponents' view-preservation argument is that the subject property should not be developed at all," Green said. "The difficulty with that argument is that the property has been zoned for urban density development and not for preservation as open space."
Residents of the neighborhood next to the new development also argued that the project would create unacceptable levels of traffic on Pine Street and neighborhood streets.
But Green said PMR's street grid plan will minimize spillover into neighborhood streets and minimize traffic on Pine Street and its intersection with Cascade Avenue "by providing alternative routes through the (development)."
PMR developers had offered to eliminate the connection of the new South Pine Meadow Street with Black Crater Avenue if the county agreed. However, Green ruled that doing so "will not solve the problem identified by opponents and in fact may cause additional problems" with emergency access and concentration of traffic at other intersections.
She ruled that the intersection could not be eliminated or relocated.
Howard Paine of the Alliance for Responsible Land Use in Deschutes County, an active opponent of the Pine Meadow Ranch development, indicated that the fight is over for his organization.
"We're not going to do any appeal," Paine said.
If Green's decision is not appealed by March 25, work can begin immediately on the project.
"We're going to get started right away," McGhehey said. "In the absence of an appeal, we're going to install the streets this spring.
The first houses could be up this fall at the earliest, McGhehey said. Plans call for building in phases up the meadow from north to south. The first phase of the development will stretch from Jefferson Street to St. Helens Street.
Green ruled that construction noise and air quality are already covered by county ordinances and Department of Environmental Quality requirements and she did not add any restrictions. Green did, however, "restrict construction vehicle traffic to Hood Avenue and South Cottonwood and South Pine Meadow Streets."
South Cottonwood Street and South Pine Meadow Street are within the new development.
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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