Council approves comprehensive plan

Relieved and happy after long years of toil, city councilors clapped their hands on Thursday, February 26, after voting unanimously to adopt a thorough redrafting of the Sisters Urban Area Comprehensive Plan.

City planners Neil Thompson and Brian Rankin breathed sighs of relief and exhilaration.

Ten years of labor brought forth a thick document that outlines the city's goals for urban development, citizen involvement and public policies. The comprehensive plan was last updated in 1979.

"I'm thrilled and want to congratulate (the staff) for bringing it finally to an end," said councilor Deb Kollodge.

Thompson told The Nugget the new plan encompasses many changes, but most were drafted after the installment of the city sewer.

"The most significant change was the reality of the sewer," Thompson said. "It changed all the assumptions and it radically changed the development plan."

The sewer allowed for a much larger capacity and variety of development in Sisters. The sewer also will help accommodate the needs for a rapidly growing city, which is expected to triple in size in the next 10 years, according to the comprehensive plan.

Also to accommodate population growth, the plan proposes that the city add 134 acres to its existing 1,124 acres in the urban growth boundary.

Plans for the expansion of the urban growth boundary have faced criticism from Paul Dewey, an attorney and head of the Sisters Forest Planning committee. Dewey wrote his criticisms of the comprehensive plan in a letter to Thompson. Thompson addressed this letter and gave a summary of his response to the letter at the council meeting.

Dewey is opposed to plans to create mixed-use neighborhoods called "neighborhood centers" in the new urban growth boundaries.

Dewey said the neighborhoods, which will allow for 10 percent commercial development, will kill vitality in the downtown center.

But Thompson said in his address to the council that the mixed-use developments will have limited but necessary commercial development.

"We want to make sure these neighborhoods enjoy the same privileges to walk to commercial centers as the rest of the town," Thompson said.

Other changes to the plan included providing for more affordable housing, transportation needs including proposals to build a Main Avenue/Hood Avenue couplet, and formalizing policies for citizen involvement.