Council adopts ordinance changing Sisters' density requirements

Considering that there was a measure affecting Sisters' density on the agenda, City Hall was unusually quiet Thursday, May 13, when Sisters City Council unanimously voted to pass a controversial ordinance which has been tabled for months.

After more than a year of meetings and analysis, the Sisters City Council finally passed Ordinance 348 on Thursday, which gives developers more freedom in planning new residential subdivisions.

The ordinance amends the development code to require developers to build four to eight units per gross acre, changed from the code's previous six to seven units per gross acre. The city adopted the former development code on June 28, 2001.

This ordinance will allow builders to create homes with lots that are as large as a quarter of an acre in size.

In recent months, the city pulled the ordinance from council agendas and delayed action because developers and members of the Sisters Planning Commission, sharply criticized the four to eight unit density, complaining it should be as low as two to seven units per gross acre.

Curt Kallberg, a member of a citizens group that worked on the density proposals, and Bill Reed, Realtor, have been outspoken opponents of the ordinance.

No one spoke against the ordinance on Thursday, however. Kallberg did not attend the meeting, but Mayor David Elliott told the council and the visitors that Kallberg agreed to support the passing of the ordinance, so long as the council agreed to continue to review the density numbers.

Councilor Judy Trego voiced her desire to have a workshop to discuss the density numbers by sometime in June. The council agreed, but did not set a date.

In other business, the council unanimously adopted the City of Sisters Population Forecast, which was prepared by city planner, Brian Rankin and former city planner Neil Thompson.

The forecast has been presented to the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners for approval.

If approved, it will become part of the county's updated 2000 to 2025 coordinated population forecast. The first county forecast was adopted in 1998.

"After the 2000 decennial census, and the subsequent population estimates of the Population Research Center of the State of Oregon, the county found that population growth was occurring faster than originally contemplated in the 1998 forecast," the city wrote in the resolution to adopt the forecast.

The new forecast predicts Sisters will have a population of 4,688 in the year 2025.

The councilors indicated in an earlier workshop that they wanted to show their united support of the forecast before it is made subject to public scrutiny.

In March of 2003, the Board of County Commissioners adopted a coordinated population forecast for the county and the cities of Bend, Redmond and Sisters.

This forecast was repealed in August of 2003 as a result of an appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, according to the Deschutes County website.

Paul Dewey, attorney, opposed the forecast because he said the population predictions were too high.

The new Sisters forecast is slightly lower than that update, which predicted 4,936 people in 2025.

A copy of the proposed coordinated county forecast with its latest changes, is available at the Deschutes County website, www.co.deschutes.or.us.