News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Developers of the 30-acre McKenzie Meadows property at the west end of Sisters are seeking a zone change and comprehensive plan amendment to allow multifamily unit development including a long-planned senior living facility.
McKenzie Meadows lies along McKinney Butte Drive directly north of Sisters Middle School.
The Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission heard the request for a zone change on Thursday, automatically continuing a public hearing on the matter to August 19 due to a staff error in providing public notice to neighbors.
The property was originally to be zoned for single-family residential development, which would not allow the assisted-living facility and other multifamily units the developers are planning. The property was approved by voters for annexation to the city in 2006 on the basis of "mixed-use" development.
The zone change hearing is the first of several steps involved in making the project a reality. The developers are near completion of a master plan which will have to be approved by the city; then a site plan will have to pass muster.
"This is really a change on paper," said city planner Eric Porter of the zone change request. "It doesn't immediately lead to site development."
For the planning commission, the key issue is whether the infrastructure in the area is sufficient to accommodate a zone change. It appears that the water and sewer systems are sized sufficiently to handle the proposed scale of development.
The planning staff recommendation to approve the zone change included a condition that "requires the developer to either transfer 21.89 acres of vintage 1880s water rights to the city, or pay (an) in-lieu fee for each EDU based on ... projected water needs of the property."
Transportation impacts appear to be less than what they would have been under the previously proposed single-family zoning. The developers are promising more information on traffic impact on nearby intersections at the August 19 meeting, though detailed traffic analysis does not become relevant until the site plan comes up for consideration.
While the issue before the planning commissioners was narrowly defined, the board was given a glimpse of what developers are planning. A portion of the property will be set aside for a park, and another portion will be designated for a "school-based medical clinic."
The assisted-living facility will take up the largest portion of the development - 82 units or 32 percent of the project. There will be 52 units of "senior affordable housing"; 36 "independent-living cottages"; 33 "single-family cottages"; 42 multifamily units; and 12 townhomes.
Rob Roy of Pacific Crest Affordable Housing talked about his company's involvement in the senior affordable housing portion of the project. That portion would consist of independent-living apartments.
"We haven't done a full market study for this area yet," he said. However, he noted, "There is enough of a need for us to take the next step."
Pacific Crest Affordable Housing works in financial partnership with municipalities and the State of Oregon to create affordable senior housing.
"These projects have an incredible amount of public participation in them," Roy said. "We believe this becomes a community asset."
Roy believes the Sisters project would be similar to the Little Deschutes Lodge Pacific Crest developed in La Pine, which opened in January.
"I think La Pine in many ways reflects what we'd like to do here," he said.
Roy noted that approval through Oregon Community Housing & Community Services can take from one to three years and noted that the city can play a significant role in expediting that process.
Pinnacle Alliance Group of Yakima, Washington, is still involved in the effort to create an assisted-living facility on the property. According to the terms of the annexation agreement between the developers and the city, the assisted-living facility must be built before other aspects of the project can go forward.
The developers of the property are Bill Willitts, Curt Kallberg and the Reed family.
"We're not big-time developers," Kallberg told the commission and citizens at the hearing. "We're a small developer and we have a lot of pride in our work."
Kallberg assured the commission that the work on the development would be done by local contractors and subcontractors and supplied by local suppliers.
"This is to generate jobs in our community," he said.
Kallberg said he wants to build a facility where he would be happy to house his mother - and eventually himself.
"I'm going to have a poker room in it; I'm going to have an ice cream parlor, 'cause that's what I want," he said.
Kallberg noted that the project has been 13 years in the making. Commissioner Allan Holzman, concerned about the implication that the commission would hold up an application, noted that over the past three years, staff and the planning commission have worked expeditiously to process qualified applications.
"You bring us a clean application," he said, "it's going to go through lickety-split."
New commissioner Doug Roberts noted a potential conflict of interest: he is employed by the Reeds through Coldwell Banker Reed Bros. Realty and has a business relationship with the other two applicants. However, he said, he believes he can deliberate and make decisions impartially on the zone change issue.
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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