News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Concerns over traffic and the impact on neigborhoods from two potential industrial developments dominated 5-1/2 hours of testimony before the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday night, January 26.
The commissioners held their hearing at Sisters Firehall; they left the record open for two weeks, postponing a decision at least into February.
The Sisters School District is seeking to bring approximately 30 acres of land at the end of North Pine Street into the Sisters Urban Growth Boundary and have it rezoned for light industrial use. The developers of Barclay Meadows Business Park made a virtually identical application on 35 acres of land along Camp Polk Road.
Deschutes County Hearings Officer Karen Green has recommended denial of both applications due to concerns about compatibility with adjacent residential areas and the impact of traffic.
Both applicants have offered to restrict uses on the property and fund a share of traffic improvements. However, the commissioners questioned whether traffic mitigation should occur before Sisters has a transportation system plan. The Oregon Department of Transportation has funded a plan, which is supposed to be completed in about 18 months.
"We're asking you to convince us that we're not putting the cart before the horse here," commissioner Tom DeWolf said. "Can we put in a deed restriction that says nothing will be developed until a comprehensive plan and a TSP (are) adopted?"
Barclay Meadows attorney Tia Lewis was not willing to make that commitment. However, she testified that "we have identified (traffic) improvements through a lot of meetings with ODOT, with our traffic engineer."
Lewis said the improvements, such as a traffic signal at Locust Street and Cascade Avenue and a new road from the industrial park linking to Highway 20 near the Ponderosa Lodge, are likely to be in the TSP. She said the applicants would contribute money to whatever improvements the plan recommends.
Commissioner Linda Swearingen expressed skepticism.
"How can we hold someone accountable to a plan that's not adopted?" she asked.
The applicants have both proposed a "trip cap" which would restrict the number of car trips generated by development. The cap adds up to a restriction to 68 percent of the potential development on the sites.
According to ODOT planner Peter Russell, "this is the first time in (local) Region 4 and maybe in the state where a developer has said 'okay, I'll limit my development.'"
Leonard Sundvall, a resident of Trapper Point and former Sisters mayor, was skeptical.
"I can't believe this idea of a trip cap," he said. "There's nothing there to enforce that. It's just a formula on paper."
Both applicants have also offered to restrict the types of development allowed on the property, to placate concerns of neighboring residents.
That wasn't enough to convince opponents, most of them residents of neighboring Trapper Point.
Roy Schulke argued that the county should reconsider the belief that Sisters needs more industrial land in the first place.
He testified that Sisters could prosper without more industrial jobs, which would likely go largely to commuters, creating more traffic.
Tom Weeks, who has put his Trapper Point properties up for sale, argued that siting industrial land next to residential neighborhoods is inappropriate, no matter what buffers are created.
"I don't see where there's ever been a great transition between residential and industrial," he said. "It doesn't happen."
Leslee Bangs, the school district land use planner, noted that the land's current exclusive farm use zoning allows very intensive uses with no public review.
Much of the testimony focused on traffic.
Eric Dolson, publisher of The Nugget, said that he was confident that impact on residential areas could be mitigated. However, he said, the community deserves a say in whether it wants a signal at Locust Street and Highway 20, a signal which, Dolson believes, may make a bad traffic situation in Sisters even worse.
Bangs cited testimony from traffic engineer David Knitowsky that a signal would improve safety at that location.
Howard Paine, a resident of Indian Ford, noted that hundreds of residential lots have already been platted in the area north of Sisters and accessed by Camp Polk Road.
"What we have is two times the traffic on Camp Polk Road when all those lots are built out," he said. "I say do not approve any more traffic that's going to access Camp Polk Road."
Sisters voters have already agreed to annex both parcels once they are in the UGB and rezoned for industry. The land is currently still under county jurisdiction. No city representatives were on hand.
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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