Comp plan remains in limbo

The plan that is supposed to be guiding Sisters into the new millennium is still stalled -- and has been for about six years.

The Sisters Comprehensive Plan was approved by the city council and sent on to Deschutes County and the state Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) last year --after years of changes and review.

Now the state has kicked the plan back to Sisters for changes.

"We're rewriting it again in light of the sewer," said city planner Neil Thompson.

According to Thompson, some major changes will have to be made, centering around the question of density -- how much land Sisters needs for the future and how many people should live on an acre within the city limits.

Thompson said the state initially sought 18-21 people per acre average density.

"That's Portland," Thompson argued. He believes any density over 8-10 people per acre would create "culture shock" in Sisters, which has always had semi-rural densities by default because of large lot sizes required by septic systems. DLCD is now looking for 12-14 per acre.

DLCD also wants to recheck statistics such as persons per household and a more detailed breakout of income stratification.

The re-write is the latest in an apparently endless series of delays. The comprehensive plan update process started in 1991.

Comprehensive plans are supposed to guide a community over a 20-year period; the yet-to be-adopted plan has already used up half of its shelf life.

Thompson noted that much of the work that has gone into the plan has been overtaken by events.

The lack of an updated comprehensive plan has already had significant impact in the land-use arena.

The Sisters School District and Barclay Meadows Business Park decided to pursue a contentious course through a Deschutes County hearing in order to bring land into the city and rezone it for industrial purposes.

The draft comp plan already lists that land as part of the industrial inventory.

Similarly, the city was forced to jump through a series of legal hoops in determining the uses for its sewer treatment plant land that would be simplified if the comp plan were in place.

Thompson hopes to submit the re-written plan to the city council in January. Given the changes made, he thinks the public should be given a chance to comment through a formal public hearings process.

Then the plan can go back to DLCD and the county --again.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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