Residents hail delay on density change

Concerned residents expressed relief at the Sisters City Council's decision to table a controversial ordinance on Thursday, April 22.

The ordinance would have amended the Sisters Development Code to require developers to build new subdivisions with a density of four to eight units per gross acre. Currently developers must submit to the existing development code, which was approved in June 2001, and requires six to seven units per gross acre.

Councilors agreed that six to seven units per gross acre is a tight restriction, which will promote high-density, lower-cost neighborhoods, and will be difficult to achieve in Sisters.

"When we went to six to seven units, we went from where we were at -- a third of an acre sized lots -- to about half that size," Councilor Lon Kellstrom said. "We didn't ask all the questions we should have."

The residents who attended Thursday's meeting said they don't want six to seven units per gross acre, but they don't want the City Council to pass the proposed four to eight units per gross acre ordinance, either.

Instead, the visitors repeated the message they've been telling the council for months: they want them to pass an ordinance which allows for two to seven units per gross acre. That way, they will have the option of building low-density neighborhoods with large lots, like Coyote Springs, residents said.

"Four to eight units per gross acre is not acceptable,"said Bill Reed, Realtor. "You are supposed to address people of all incomes, but never again will there be a subdivision like Coyote Springs, which has an average of 12,000-square-feet-sized lots. I think it is a shame someone is trying to shove this density down (the) throats of the people. For some reason this document keeps coming out different than the recommendation of the city."

The council agreed to delay a decision and look more closely at density options, but they warned the visitors that they will have to submit to the existing development code in the meantime, which means developers who apply for new subdivisions are required to build six to seven houses per gross acre.

"Right now, six to seven really limits developers,"said Mayor David Elliott. "This is really tying their hands. If we adopt the new ordinance, it will loosen it up a little. Passing it as it is now would help them in the interim, but we'll pull it."

Reed, Curt Kallberg, a member of a citizen's group that worked on the density proposals and Sharlene Weed, executive director of Habitat for Humanity, told The Nugget they are glad the city council did not approve the proposed ordinance. Their fear, they said, is that if the ordinance passed, it would never be amended.

"It is so important, they've got to get it right,"Kallberg said. "It's okay to take some time. Nobody is waiting to plot (a new subdivision) at this time. We have time."

The delay came as a relief to Habitat's Sharlene Weed, but for some different reasons.

Weed told the council she hopes they will also re-evaluate other parts of the ordinance -- the amendments, which if approved, will raise the minimum lot size for duplexes to 7,500 square feet from 6,000 square feet and town homes to 3,750 square feet from 3,000 square feet and prevent the construction of town homes, duplexes and triplexes in existing residential districts.

"This is a big issue and I am afraid you will overlook the need for affordable housing," Weed told the council. "Please allow us to continue to build with the same code for townhouses on 6,000 square feet. We want to fit into the community and we are concerned about that, but four houses per year is not something we look at as something that will ruin the neighborhood."

Weed said purchasing the larger lots would increase Habitat's costs from about $30,000 to $70,000 per housing project.