Home builders have been pushing back against Bend’s regulations protecting trees from development since they were adopted two years ago. Despite continued calls to relax the so-called “tree code,” the Bend City Council isn’t budging.
At a Sept. 9 meeting, the City Council opted not to go along with requests from the development community that would’ve resulted in fewer trees replanted, or fewer fees paid to the City after trees are removed to build housing. Developers had also asked the City to take away juniper tree protections entirely.
Home builders say tree regulations are an added burden, driving up costs in what’s already among the most expensive housing markets in Oregon. For the City, they’re an attempt at maintaining the environmental benefits of trees and addressing residents’ concerns that too many were being cut down amid Bend’s rapid growth.
In most cases, the code is working, staff told the City Council in an annual tree code report Sept. 9. Of the 58 developments subject to the code so far, 40 met code requirements by preserving a certain portion of mature trees on site.
Still, the code allows most trees to be cut down.
“The fact of the matter is, the urban forest locally has been declining for decades,” Bend Urban Forester Ian Gray told the Bend City Council in a Sept. 9 presentation. “I don’t know that the codes as currently written are going to slow that down.”
“Despite being a critical first step, it is a pretty low bar,” Gray added. “I’m not surprised we’re seeing a lot of people meet the retention requirements.”
Gray warned the City Council that loosening code requirements would amplify the loss of urban trees and their neighborhood benefits, like shade.
The tree code requires developers to submit tree preservation plans to the City’s planning department, including an inventory of trees on the property they plan to develop, and which ones they plan to save. To comply, developers can save at least 20% of larger trees— 20 inches wide at chest height — or at least one-quarter of the total width of all trees on the property. If that’s not possible, developers can choose to replant a certain number of trees to make up for it, or simply pay a fee to the City.
That money goes into a City fund to replant trees across the city. But the new regulations have generated far less in fee revenue than some thought. Only seven applications have paid fees to the City for a total of $63,000.
At the meeting, Bend City Councilor Ariel Méndez said he believes the code has successfully stopped developers from clearcutting larger trees, but isn’t bringing in enough money to help the City expand its tree canopy.
“I kind of want to see more revenue generated,” Méndez said. “Maybe the bar was so low and we’re not seeing people use the in-lieu-of fee.”
If developers choose to replant trees, each tree they remove from a site could require between one and four replacement trees, depending on size. Since 2024, developers have opted to replant nearly 1,500 trees to comply with the code.
That doesn’t include trees planted in the right-of-way, otherwise known as “street trees,” which subdivision builders are required to plant, regardless of the tree code.
Changing that part of the code was one of the requests City Councilors heard at an Aug. 31 roundtable meeting with representatives from some of Bend’s largest development companies. They also requested the City deregulate trees on land that would eventually become City streets.
According to some examples presented by City staff, those two changes would have reduced mitigation requirements by anywhere from 25% to 50%.
In some cases, the cost difference would be substantial.
That’s the case for the Legacy Village, 2,500-home development being planned for 260 acres of high desert in southeast Bend. Redmond-based regional builder Hayden Homes is on the hook for $1.3 million in tree code mitigation costs, according to an email from spokesperson Jenn Kovitz. The company estimates that it will plant 1,500 street trees at Legacy Village. If those could help satisfy tree code requirements, it would save $900,000, according to Kovitz.
“It’s just pretty disappointing to see that those common-sense measures haven’t been adopted,” Kovitz told the Source.
This isn’t the first time Bend’s tree code has remained amid developer pushback.
Shortly after it was passed, the code faced a legal challenge at the Land Use Board of Appeals from large-scale developer Pahlisch Homes, joined by the Central Oregon Builders Association, Hayden Homes and Bend YIMBY, the housing advocacy group. Pahlisch dismissed the appeal a few months later. Then, affordable housing developer Thistle & Nest took the City to a public hearing over the code, arguing it violated state law around “clear and objective” development codes. A hearings officer shot down the appeal.
Kovitz said the debate over Bend’s tree code is often framed as affordable housing in conflict with environmental goals. She called that a “false binary.” But she also said the tree code as currently written “directly contradicts” two of the Bend City Council’s goals for housing affordability and wildfire safety.
Kovitz said that contradiction is exaggerated at Legacy Village — land made available for development by state legislation in 2021 that sidestepped urban growth restriction rules. The legislation came with requirements for affordable housing and high-density housing, explicitly calling out the state’s housing crisis.
Bend is lagging behind state-prescribed goals to ramp up affordable housing construction, according to City metrics.
“I think the overriding need in the very near term is to reduce a little bit of cost for our developers,” said Bend City Councilor Steve Platt.
Platt, Councilor Megan Perkins and Mayor Melanie Kebler were in favor of loosening the tree code, although not exempting junipers entirely. Méndez, along with Councilors Mike Riley and Gina Franzosa, opted to keep it as is. A seventh councilor, Megan Norris, was recused for a potential conflict of interest because she works as a planner for Hayden Homes, the development company. With the council split, it couldn’t direct staff to change the code.
“I’m honestly not persuaded that changing the code like this is going to make a big difference in the cost that we’re seeing per unit in housing in our community,” Riley said.
Kebler said easing the code would be a “small step” toward affordability. She also said the tree code is the right tool “to create an urban canopy that we want.” Instead, she said the City should create a master plan that takes a “holistic look” at Bend’s tree canopy and comes up with funding sources for how to enhance it.
Some of that work has already begun. Gray, the urban forester, led a group of volunteers in Bend’s first citywide tree inventory this summer. They plotted nearly 30,000 trees, noting size and species, while identifying another 4,000 “vacant” spaces where trees could be planted in the future. The results from the inventory, which is still ongoing, are available in a new public dashboard.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
