City considering lower density plans

City representatives are responding to residents' fears that Sisters will lose its character and quality of life due to city plans to allow for higher density.

City staff met in a workshop Thursday, October 23, to consider amending the Sisters Development Code to allow fewer houses per gross acre.

The new Sisters sewer system has allowed for more development in and around the city limits. Planners and city officials have differing opinions on how much housing density is appropriate to accommodate Sisters' accelerating population growth.

City Planning Director Neil Thompson recommended adding about 90 acres of land to the city's urban growth boundary (UGB), as well as beginning to develop a city with minimum densities of five to eight units per gross acre.

The Sisters Development Code was originally approved on June 28, 2001, with a required density of six to seven units per gross acre for residential housing, and 10 to 24 units for multi-family housing.

Thompson said developers sometimes avoid higher-density developments because they find them less profitable. He said a five- to eight-unit density will spur the creation of more multi-unit and affordable housing complexes.

"We have people who cannot afford two to seven houses per lot," Thompson said. "We have to provide houses for them. We do not just have to worry about putting money in the pocket of developers. There are other concerns."

Thompson's recommendation is favored by the Department of Land Conservation and Development which is funding part of the creation of the code. Many residents and councilors, however, are pushing for a two-to-seven-unit per acre density.

"We're in a rural town," said Councilor Lon Kellstrom. "The same laws that apply to Bend and Redmond do not necessarily apply to Sisters. I don't think the citizens are interested in having five to eight units per gross acre and that's what we found out at the citizens' committee."

A citizens' committee met in early October to make recommendations for density plans.

Most of the committee members preferred two to seven units per gross acre, said Bill Merrill, a member of the citizens' committee and chairman of the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission.

Thompson told The Nugget his recommendation to amend the code to allow for five to eight houses per acre in residential areas will still allow some units to have only two houses, as long as the entire development averages to be five to eight units per acre.