Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch delivered a State of the City address Thursday morning focused on how the City is handling the sweeping challenges of population growth, which he largely blamed on a “deluge” of state mandates restricting local control before announcing his plans to run for reelection for a final time this year.
Fitch’s speech lasted about 40 minutes with City staff, local elected officials and members of the public in attendance. He said the City is doing a good job facing a rise in the number of calls to police, increased traffic and congestion, homelessness, state goals to build thousands of new homes and uncertainty about the future of the City’s groundwater supply.
“I’m happy to report the City is in great shape, and hopefully will be in the future, too,” Fitch said.
Growth in Redmond and Deschutes County has slowed from the post-pandemic era, but is still outpacing the rest of the state. The most recent estimates from Portland State University’s Population Research Center put Redmond’s population at 38,199. Forecasts say the City will add another 20,000 people by 2050.
A state analysis says Redmond will need to build about 10,000 new homes in the next 20 years to keep up with growth, make up for historic underbuilding and stay in line with state-mandated housing goals.
But Fitch and the City Council have clashed with the Oregon Legislature’s housing reforms, which strip cities’ ability to block developers from building townhomes, duplexes and triplexes in areas historically dominated by single-family homes. Fitch said he feels forcing denser housing onto smaller lots is “compromising the integrity of neighborhoods.”
“They come up every freaking year from Salem,” Fitch said of the housing laws, adding that the City’s planning department is “doing a great job trying to keep up with that, but it’s gotta stop, these state mandates. They’re really taking away any ability as a city to control the future.”
Fitch also called the state’s urban growth boundary expansion process too difficult and expensive, mentioning his vision to add 1,200 acres in northwest Redmond for new homes and businesses through special legislative action. The City has created a master plan for the land, showing where homes, schools and businesses could go.
On transportation, Fitch discussed a host of planned road upgrades and expressed frustration with the Oregon Department of Transportation, citing red tape and calling the agency “very, very challenging” to work with. He talked about a long-term vision to build an east-west beltway around Redmond to ease congestion.
One of Fitch’s biggest challenges has been securing a future water supply for the City. Drought, declining aquifer levels and new regulations make it unlikely the City will get access to greater levels of groundwater in the future. Officials are confident the current water right will last another 15 to 20 years, and ongoing conservation efforts will extend it even further.
The speech ended with Fitch declaring that he’ll seek a fourth two-year term in office this November. He won’t be able to run again after that because of a voter-approved change to the City charter in 2024 that capped mayors and councilors to two consecutive terms while expanding the term length to four years.
Fitch was Redmond’s city attorney for two decades before serving one term as mayor from 1999 to 2001. He was elected again as mayor in 2022.
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