Editorial

Mayor Wilson and the city council should tread very carefully in facilitating a transfer of Forest Service land on the west edge of Sisters to Multnomah Publishers.

The city needs to first ask a central question, with full participation of as many citizens as possible: What is the highest and best use of this property for the future of Sisters?

The community may need land for traditional neighborhoods on the smallest possible lots.

Commercial or office development could house 60 or so small businesses.

The city might need more light industrial land in 10 years, given the current rate of absorption.

An east-west link through the property from Camp Polk Road could provide a crucial solution to the community's growing and nearly desperate traffic problems.

We assume this land will eventually be developed, and believe it should be. It makes no sense to have a finger of land within an urban area owned and managed by a federal agency whose primary mission is to manage forest resources.

The Sisters community is growing, and needs land to grow into. Better this particular parcel than a shallow sprawl into farm or forest along the highways.

However, before development, the property will have to be rezoned, and zoning must comply with the city's long range plan. The current plan considers the land to be open space, and the proposed plan may reserve the property for public facilities, according to city officials.

Multnomah's vision of a low density, low impact campus in the trees may also be the best possible use of this real estate.

We certainly hope the company finds a suitable home within the community of Sisters. Multnomah has been an outstanding corporate citizen since it relocated here more than a decade ago as Questar.

In addition to direct generosity to the schools and charitable organizations, the company has a huge payroll that benefits nearly every business in town (including this newspaper), and indirectly, many Sisters citizens.

However, the city may be putting the cart before the horse in this effort -- putting itself and Multnomah Publishers at risk of unnecessary delay and expense -- if it works for a land exchange before addressing the planning process.

ED