News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The effort to maximize profits from approximately 30 acres of "surplus" land has put the Sisters School District in the somewhat unusual position of acting as a developer.
The 30-acre "Lundgren Mill property" owned by the Sisters School District at the north end of Pine Street was once supposed to be the site of a new school. When that didn't work out due to airport and transportation restrictions, the land, zoned "exclusive farm use" (EFU) became surplus, useful to the district only as an asset.
Now the district is trying to make the most of its asset by getting the land brought inside the Sisters Urban Growth Boundary and rezoned.
"The (school) boards have talked about it for a number of years," said school board chairman Bill Reed. "We have a fiduciary duty to the patrons of the district to maximize the value of the property."
According to schools superintendent Steve Swisher, appraisals indicate the re-zoned land would be worth between $1.7 and $1.9 million. It is worth only a fraction of that in its current EFU status.
The potential profit from the land is the incentive for the district to get involved in what has proved to be a lengthy and complicated land use process through Deschutes County.
The district, along with the adjacent Barclay Meadows Business Park, have crafted a development agreement they believe addresses traffic and compatibility issues created by future development (see related story, page 1).
The district has offered to pay $143,800 in mitigation costs to deal with traffic impact.
That money would not come out of the school budget, school officials noted. According to the agreement, the money would be paid by the owners of each lot at the time of development.
"The reality is that it's the subsequent third-party purchaser who pays that," Reed said.
The district has spent very little in professional fees in the effort to get the land rezoned. Planner Leslee Bangs and attorney James Massey have contributed significant pro bono services.
What the district may pay in expenses and other legal fees is funded out of proceeds from the sale of a half-acre parcel to Metabolic Maintenance Products for about $46,000.
Proceeds from a sale of the Lundgren Mill property have long been earmarked for new school buildings and the repair and upkeep of existing buildings. The district is crafting an ambitious master plan for a school campus on land it owns west of the existing high school.
The district could sell the Lundgren Mill land in one piece, subdivide it into three 10-acre parcels or carve it up into half- to one-acre parcels in an industrial park and retail the lots.
"The board hasn't closed the door on any option," Reed said.
"There may be a little piece that we may want to put our own building on," Swisher said.
That building would house a vocational training center for students, conveniently located near a variety of local employers. In that scenario, students might also be brought in as part of their Certificate of Advanced Mastery program to subdivide and market lots on that smaller parcel.
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.
Reader Comments(0)