Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch calls it “vision impossible.” The City of Redmond is looking at potentially expanding its Urban Growth Boundary by 1,270 acres on the east side in the coming years to accommodate future population growth. It’s a project Fitch is passionate about. The city’s population is around 38,000 and growing. Fitch wants the city to get ahead of and plan now for future growth.
“It’s hard to get people to focus long-term because there’s so much right in front of us in terms of work that we have to get done to meet the current demands that we have,” he told the Source.
On Feb. 17, Redmond city councilors and Deschutes County commissioners listened to an informational presentation by Chris Moore with DTJ Design in Colorado. Fitch says he asked Chuck Koon, a friend, and Hayden Watson of Hayden Homes to fund the $70,000 preliminary master plan, which he says they did with no strings attached.
The property, owned by the County, is north of Highway 126 and the Redmond airport, adjacent to the planned CORE3 multi-agency emergency response center. The eastern side is bordered by U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, and the northern border abuts privately owned land. The tract sits between Redmond’s urban growth boundary and urban reserve area. RURA is a designated, long-term planning area outside Redmond’s current UGB. It earmarks high-priority land for a future 20-to-50-year expansion to meet long-term population needs. The County has the authority to decide any amendments to the RUGB and RURA. The City is responsible for the preparation, adoption and amendment of public facility plans for any RUGB amendments.
The area could provide an estimated 8,400 housing units with room for commercial development and open space. In his presentation, Moore identified utility limitations as a weakness, in terms of scale. Fitch says the City has enough water to sustain a population of up to 55,000.
“We need a new plan in the Deschutes Basin where cities are assured of water in the future, because we’re required to accept growth… From a land-use perspective, from water, utilities, power, all that kind of long-range planning has not yet been fleshed out in terms of state and regional policy, but it really has to be. We’re getting to the point where we really need to have that discussion,” Fitch explains.
Within the tract of land are 318 acres that include a surface mining zone in connection with the Negus Transfer Station. The county recently invested $20 million to build the 35,000-square-foot facility on NE Maple Avenue which opened in 2024. Fitch says the transfer station may need to be moved down the road. At the joint meeting, county commissioners bristled at the idea after spending millions to build it.
Fitch wants to bring the entire 1,270-acre plot into the Redmond UGB, which would require state legislative approval. “The way our current law is structured is that you can only have incremental additions to your urban growth boundary. This would not fit into the current rules and regulations for urban growth expansion so we would have to have a special legislative enactment… I think it’s critical that it comes in as one unit because…that enables you to pre-plan where the infrastructure is going to go, how big the infrastructure has to be, and it provides for a really integrated development that will provide a really significant high level of livability for all types of housing. We look at the ability to have parks, trails, school sites already pre-selected. It’s going to be a much more efficient way of developing.” He wants to complete a master plan first to take to state lawmakers, the governor’s office and Department of Land Conservation.
The first steps would involve a feasibility study that would include an environmental site assessment, a study on transportation, economic impact, utility and infrastructure as well as public engagement. That would take up to a year and need to be included in a future budget. Fitch is hoping funds will be included in the 2027-28 budget and go before the state legislature sometime between 2029-2031.
At its meeting on Feb. 23, the Redmond City Council pushed the discussion to December when it meets to discuss priority goals. By January, there will be a five-seat county commission and possibly some new Redmond city councilors and mayor.
This article appears in the Source February 26, 2026.
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