City snapshot — code work underway

At City Hall, staff is busy working on a number of projects involving creating, streamlining, or updating master plans, memorandums of understanding, municipal codes, and development codes, all designed to help the City function more smoothly and in line with changing times.

Code Compliance Municipal Code updates are currently underway now that Code Compliance Officer (CCO) Jacob Smith has joined the City staff. He is busy drafting amendments to the Municipal Code related to the addition of administrative infractions, to allow the CCO the ability to enforce the Municipal Code more efficiently for the community. He stressed that voluntary compliance with the code is the goal, without the use of any enforcement mechanism.

The Parks Master Plan update is underway, with consultants Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture and Planning conducting stakeholder interviews and inventorying current park properties, to be followed by community input, a needs assessment, goals, policies, and recommendations, capital improvement plan, documentation and adoption, and determining how to pay for additions/improvements.

The review of the project is being guided by a Project Management Team (PMT) that consists of: Sisters Park and Recreation Executive Director Jennifer Holland; City Parks Advisory Board member Emily Curtis; City Manager Cory Misley; Community Development Director Scott Woodford; Public Works Director Paul Bertagna; and Public Works Project Manager for Parks Master Plan Update Troy Rayburn. In addition, the City Parks Advisory Board is involved in the update.

The first two public outreach events are planned, which will include pop-up tabling events soliciting public community input. Sisters Farmers Market on Sunday, June 5 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. will be the site of the first event. Sisters Folk Festival local community concert (free event) at Fir Street Park on Saturday, June 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. will be the second.

For more information, visit the project site: Parks Master Plan Update on the City website.

A public hearing was held at the May 5 City Council meeting and ordinance 522 was approved to establish setback requirements from Cascade Avenue and Whychus Creek for temporary uses (126 feet from Cascade Avenue and 30 feet from Whychus Creek on both sides of the creek from the top of the bank).

Electric vehicle charging stations (Level 2) have been installed in the first four spaces at the west end of the City Hall parking lot.

Finance Director Joe O’Neill reported that the City is currently in a strong financial position with one month left in the fiscal year which ends on June 30, 2022. Income from property taxes has come in higher than expected. System Development Charges (SDC) have exceeded the anticipated amount, already at 127 percent of budget. The Transient Lodging Tax (TLT), which was budgeted for $750,000 for the year, was at $785,000 in March and projected to reach $1 million by fiscal year end.

The first two phases of the Sisters Woodlands project are underway, with lots of heavy equipment visible, putting in streets and preparing the site for construction.