News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The developers of two 30-acre industrial sites north of Sisters are hammering out a plan to handle the traffic the sites could generate.
Barclay Meadows Business Park has offered $138,300 and the Sisters School District has offered $143,800 to cover their share of the cost of a new road and three traffic signals that could be required to mitigate increased traffic congestion in Sisters.
The developers worked together on a development agreement proposed to the Sisters City Council at its February 10 meeting.
Barclay Meadows Business Park and the school district have nearly identical applications before Deschutes County, each seeking to bring approximately 30 acres into the Sisters Urban Growth Boundary and rezone them for light industrial use.
The City of Sisters is working on a Transportation System Plan (TSP), which is expected to be finished in about 18 months. Traffic signals may -- or may not -- be part of that plan.
According to Barclay Meadows attorney Tia Lewis, the development agreement "acknowledges that the TSP will control where traffic improvements go."
If the TSP calls for different improvements than the ones outlined in the development agreement, Lewis said, "you still get to keep the money."
Mayor Steve Wilson said he was reluctant to agree to a fixed dollar amount, because the TSP could call for more expensive improvements. Wilson said the city would prefer that the developers agree to pay a percentage of whatever improvements are ultimately called for.
"Our percentage share is based on the dollar amount of signals," Lewis acknowledged. "The agreement is not based on a percentage of higher-cost improvements."
However, Lewis indicated that the developers would consider changing the agreement to address Wilson's concerns.
"There's probably a way that we could get there," she said.
Wilson noted that the city council has "wholeheartedly embraced" the idea of creating 60 acres of new industrial land. However, the council was cautious about committing to an agreement when a transportation plan is so near fruition.
"Have we got the cart before the horse?" city councilor Lon Kellstrom asked. "It worries me a bit because it strikes me... that we sign these things (development agreements) and they take on a life of their own."
The city council was to meet with the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, February 17, for a workshop on the development agreement and on the Sisters Comprehensive Plan.
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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