RV park zone change back before planners

Proposed code changes to facilitate a boutique RV park at the former site of the Conklin Guest House on the corner of Barclay Drive and Camp Polk Road/Locust Street are back before the Sisters Planning Commission on Thursday, May 16.

The Planning Commission will carry on with a continued public hearing, starting at 5:30 p.m. at Sisters City Hall, 520 E. Cascade Ave.

The changes, which would allow an RV park as a use in the Sun Ranch Tourist Commercial zone, would have to be in place before a formal plan for the site can be filed. The property developers propose a “boutique, higher-end RV Park that caters to the growing sector of the tourism industry that travels in RVs” to be sited on the property.

The code changes are suggested by the applicant.

The public hearing was continued from an April 18 session. Commissioners deferred full deliberations, which are expected to take place during the May 16 session. Several Commissioners expressed some reservations about the suggested code changes at the April 18 hearing. The Commissioners can accept the code changes as proposed, reject them entirely, or suggest modifications.

Several citizens testified on April 18 with concerns about the potential impacts of an RV Park at the site. Commission chair Jeff Seymour expressed concern that the lines were getting blurred between the development code changes — the focus of the hearing — and potential plans for the development.

As far as the formal planning process goes, specific development issues such as traffic impact are outside the scope of the code changes the planning commission is currently addressing. If the planning commission approves the code changes, the next steps for the developer would be to craft a detailed development plan for the property. It is at that point in the process that issues such as traffic and the specific proposed uses of the property would be up for discussion and debate.