News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Up to 4,167 by 2025?
If recent studies prove true, the City of Sisters will quadruple in size over the next 20 years or so, from the current population of 1,080 to approximately 4,167 by 2025.
The city's new update of a comprehensive plan to accommodate that growth will be unveiled for public scrutiny this month.
The comprehensive plan update creates policy direction for the city in areas such as housing, economic development, urbanization and public facilities.
Local economic development and housing are key issues addressed by the plan.
The plan anticipates that "the city will create and provide for nearly double the number of current jobs in the city."
Tourism is expected to remain a vital force, but the city hopes to diversify the job base by working with the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and the Community Action Team of Sisters (CATS) to attract light industry and manufacturing business and small-office professional services.
The plan analysis indicates that there is sufficient commercial and industrial land to accommodate growth.
There is, however, a shortage of residential land, according to the plan analysis.
The plan predicts that, with all platted and planned units in subdivisions taken out, "1,350 new dwelling units will be demanded in Sisters between the years 2002 and 2025. Based on this need a shortage of residential land to meet the 20-year demand is predicted."
The citizens and planners who have worked on the draft of the plan placed a heavy emphasis on affordable housing. According to Assistant City Planner Brian Rankin, the proposed plan offers more specific policies on affordable housing than are usually found in comprehensive plans.
"It's not just left blanket for the market to decide," Rankin said. "If the market continues, Sisters will be less and less affordable."
The plan states that "The city desires to use such tools as land trusts, shared appreciation mortgages, developing annexation policies, down payment assistance programs and gap financing and others (that) are effective ways to create long-term affordable housing for low-income households."
Rankin noted that the plan actually calls for a specific number of "affordable" housing units: "The housing plan shall determine how one in 10 of all new housing units built in the city by 2025, or 186 or 1,864 total units, shall be affordable to families with low incomes."
Finding land for additional residences remains an open issue. However, making Sisters more dense to accommodate new houses doesn't seem to be part of anyone's plans.
"I don't think increasing density is on the table as an option," Rankin said.
The city could re-zone some Urban Area Reserve lands, but the most likely solution will be to expand the Urban Growth Boundary.
"The question is, do we expand and if so how much," Rankin said. "That's the question we haven't answered yet."
Sisters residents may learn more about the draft comprehensive plan at an open house on Tuesday, June 17, from 4 to 7 p.m. at City Hall.
The open house is the first in a series of public meetings at which the city plans to unveil the plan. Several hearings must be held before the plan can be adopted by the Sisters City Council. Rankin expects the plan to go to the council sometime in June.
"The public process can take as long as the commission and the council deem appropriate," Rankin said. "We're not closing the book on this (plan) this month; we're presenting it."
For more information call 549-6022, extension 4.
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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