News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The Sisters Ranger District has the green light to sell a portion of its property along Pine Street in Sisters.
That's a big step for the local district but a small step in the long road toward determining what will ultimately be built on the property.
On March 20, Deschutes National Forest Supervisor Leslie Weldon signed a decision notice and "Finding of No Significant Impact" to sell National Forest lands and use the proceeds to build a new ranger station in Sisters, according to a legal notice submitted to The Nugget.
The authorization will allow the eventual sale of about 68 acres. It also authorizes a land exchange with the owner of the Best Western Ponderosa Lodge.
The Forest Service plans to construct a new ranger station on approximately 12 acres it will retain north of Barclay Avenue between the Ponderosa Lodge and Pine Street.
According to Rod Bonacker, who is managing the land project for the ranger district, the Forest Service is on track for a public auction of the land in the fall of 2007.
The City of Sisters and an ad hoc citizens committee has been working on creating a plan that would allow the Forest Service to get the money it needs for its projects and still give the city and community a high degree of control over how the land is developed.
Ideas have ranged from simply creating a zoning overlay that would determine the types of development allowed on the property to a "master developer concept" that would give the city considerable say over actual development plans.
Some of the ideas proposed could require legislative action to allow the Forest Service to sell the land on a different basis than a straightforward auction to the highest bidder.
None of these ideas has been firmed up into an official proposal from the city.
"We're not, at the moment, holding up and waiting for those discussions to bear fruit," Bonacker said.
That means the sale could go forward this fall without the city's intentions for zoning the property being clear.
If that happens, "it means someone's going to bid somewhat on speculation," Bonacker said. "That could be an issue. Developers could be leery."
Sisters Mayor Brad Boyd said he thinks the city may be closer to taking concrete action.
"I think we've identified a process that will address the concerns of all the people involved," he said.
Boyd said he cannot go into specifics because the process has not been discussed by the city council. It should come before the council early next month.
"It's still a work in progress," Boyd said. "I'm feeling more confident than I have in the last two years that we have something that addresses the various concerns of the council and the concerns of the Forest Service."
The concerns of the Forest Service are twofold: an open, public process; and maximizing the value of the land.
"We're going to have problems within our regulations with anything that isn't open," Bonacker cautioned.
The Forest Service wants to maximize proceeds in order to pay for its new ranger station in Sisters - the cost of which is still being determined - and to contribute significantly to new facilities for the Bend/Fort Rock district.
Anything that might be left over would also be put to use.
"There's a couple billion dollars worth of projects throughout the region that could use the dollars," Bonacker said. "We need to get every dollar we can out of this project. There's a home for it."
For further information or a copy of the decision notice please contact Rod Bonacker, Sisters Ranger District, P.O. Box 249, Sisters, Oregon 97759 or call 549-7729.
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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