The City of Bend is in the process of revising its Urban Growth Boundary plan and wants feedback from the community. If you can’t make it to public meetings to share your view, there’s a handy online survey just waiting for your big feelings. (Or small feelings—the city says you can spend two minute to two hours on the survey, depending on how much you have to say and the time you have to say it.)
If you aren’t familiar with the UGB, the city describes it thusly:
The Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) is a line on the City’s map that identifies Bend’s urban land. This boundary represents an estimated 20-year supply of land for employment, housing, and other urban uses. As the city continues to grow, we have an opportunity to develop a plan for future growth that reflects the community’s goals and meets state planning requirements.
Check out the survey here, and feel free to comment on this post with your thoughts.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 7, 2014.
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Extending the Urban Growth Boundary costs taxpayers more than infill building. This is shown in a 2013 report, downloadable at http://www.friends.org/infrastructure . If the UGB is extended who wins? Developers and real estate agents. Who loses? Bend taxpayers.
Sorry pissed off taxpayer but I think you have it backwards. Being a Bend native I know that one of the things that attract people to Bend was actually urban sprawl and the green space and small town feel that came with it. When you restrict the urban growth boundary you limit the supply of land to to be developed and drive up the price of housing and your taxes. You may not realize this but the promotion and tourism of this town also drives up the land prices and attracts people driving down wages. So you could say the promotion of this town for any reason is killing our livability here. The only real winners of promotion and exploitation of this town are the land investors and the businesses surounding them.