Residents kill road proposal

Edgington Road will remain unimproved. photo by Jim Cornelius

Some folks like their neighborhood just the way it is: less developed and less expensive with less congestion.

City staff announced Thursday, February 12, the speedy death of proposed road improvements in the Edgington Road Local Improvement District (LID).

Deschutes County distributed a mail poll to the property owners in the LID asking if they supported improvements on Edgington Road from Highway 242 south to the Baily Ditch Road, as well as improvements to the first 850 feet of Remuda Road.

The $693,000 in proposed improvements would have consisted of a 24-foot-wide, two-inch-deep paved road, according to a Deschutes County report.

Each property owner would have paid a maximum of $13,900 for the improvements, according to the report.

Gary Frazee, public works director, told the Sisters City Council the poll came to a close before the last third of the ballots were turned in.

Last week, 22 residents voted against the improvements and eight voted for them. Nineteen residents did not vote, but even if all of them voted yes, it would not be enough to total the necessary 60 percent super-majority in favor.

"It's been pretty controversial," Frazee said. "I got calls from three homeowners. (The voters) didn't want an increase in traffic. Most people chose to live up there because they want the privacy. They like it the way it is and they're vocal about it."

In other business, the city council passed an amendment Thursday which will bring stricter guidelines to members of the planning commission.

The amendments to Ordinance 343 limit commissioners' involvement in buying and selling real estate. The ordinance also requires commissioners to live inside the Sisters School District boundary. Another clause states that "no more than two members shall be engaged in the same kind of occupation, business, trade or profession."

The amendments are intended to keep the commissioners from having a conflict of interest involving items discussed and acted upon in the agenda, said Brian Rankin, deputy city planner.

"It is so we don't have the majority of the planning commissioners owning real estate that give the appearance of conflict of interest," Rankin said.