News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Hayden Homes has won unanimous approval from the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission to build approximately 400 homes on 40 acres at the west end of Sisters.
The planning commission on Tuesday, September 6, approved the application for “Village at Cold Springs,” a development that will be built in seven phases over the next eight years.
The project, which has been revised and refined over a period of months, faced no objections at the public hearing. However, one citizen requested that Hayden Homes voluntarily contribute to a school construction fund.
Planners attached a list of 86 conditions to the approval, requiring among other things tree protection and traffic mitigation. Hayden Homes must contribute $229,210 to a traffic signal at Highway 20 and McKinney Butte Road and will pay $100,000 toward realignment of Brooks Camp Road and McKinney Butte Road.
City Planner Bill Adams indicated that Sisters may see its first traffic signal at McKinney Butte soon.
“I expect it would be built within the next two or three years,” he said.
The planning commission is requiring that the townhomes and single-family homes in the development have “a distinctive appearance.”
“It will not be a row of houses all looking the same,” Adams said.
Planning Commissioner Dominic Debari expressed concern about long-term impacts of new development on the city’s water system.
Dave Cady of Hayden Homes noted that the company expects to pay in the neighborhood of $2.6 million in Systems Development Charges (SDCs) for water, sewer and transportation. SDCs are used to fund infrastructure improvements made necessary by new development.
Adams indicated that those SDCs would cover the impact of the development on water, sewer and road systems.
“This development is paying its own way, essentially,” Adams said.
The 400-unit development is expected to have a major impact on local schools.
Citizen activist Merry Ann Moore testified — clearly expressing the concerns of others in the audience — that the development could be expected to add from 180 to 250 new students to Sisters schools over the years.
It is illegal under state law to charge an SDC for schools.
“Under current state law,” Moore said, “a developer doesn’t have to pay a cent toward building a new school.”
In the absence of SDCs for schools, Moore asked Hayden representative Cady to consider creating a voluntary school construction fund, saying it would be in the company’s interest to support Sisters schools.
“Undoubtedly the quality of the schools in Sisters is going to be one of your strong selling points,” she said.
Cady expressed willingness to discuss such a fund with the school district, but he was vague about what kind of commitment his company could make. He indicated that a school construction fund should receive participation from all developers, not just one.
Cady described the Hayden Giving Fund as a mechanism for giving back to communities where the company builds. The fund has constructed houses that have been given to families in need.
Cady also said the fund would be a means of partnering with Habitat for Humanity to create affordable housing.
Again, however, the company representative was not specific about how and how much the company might contribute.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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