OSU-Cascades announced today that it plans to begin construction on the contested 10-acre westside campus once it receives the necessary permits from the City. Officials say they anticipate getting permits for construction activities such as excavation and tree removal during the last week of June.
Though citizen-led opposition group Truth in Site has indicated it plans to appeal the recent decision by the Land Use Board of Appeals affirming the approval of OSU’s site plan, university officials say they are confident the Court of Appeals will uphold the past three approvals of their plan.
“OSU carefully reviewed the June 8 decision by LUBA affirming OSU-Cascades’ site plan approval for a 10.44-acre campus in Bend,” OSU Vice President Becky Johnson said in a release. “The LUBA decision fully and strongly affirmed the city of Bend’s approval of this site plan.”
And the university is within its rights to move forward with construction even when an appeal is pending.
“Under local code and state law, development is allowed to continue while an appeal is pending,” Johnson said. “Oregon State is confident that significant construction progress can be made while a potential appeal is being considered and still allow the university to adjust to changes that could result from an unlikely remand or reversal by the Court of Appeals.”
First on the list: a 43,650-square-foot academic building and a 113,000-square-foot residence hall and dining center complex, along with the related infrastructure—streets, pathways and parking.
The hope is that by starting construction this summer, OSU-Cascades will be able to open the fully-fledged four-year campus in fall of 2016.
In the meantime, Truth in Site is soliciting donations from supporters to raise $27,000 before June 29 to fund the next appeal.
This article appears in Jun 17-24, 2015.
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Dear Editor Rook:
What was the size of the original OSU-Cascades campus? 10 acres is not very much. Your rendering of the campus shows that the site is covered by at least 70% pavement and buildings, and only 30% trees and grass.
I’d like to see Bend have the ability to make its own decisions, and build a 200 acre campus – in the trees – for OSU-Cascades. In 2010, I met personally with the current Senior Planner who stated that Bend wanted to have a four year university, and the implication was that this would be on a large parcel of land north of town near Juniper Ridge. Sadly, it sounds like the DLCD and LCDC have taken away that goal from this planner.
Consider Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, or, Lake Tahoe Community College in South Lake Tahoe. NAU is on a campus of about 232 acres.
For environmental conservation purposes, Bend should spread out and have lots of open space and be covered with trees – everywhere, like Flagstaff, Truckee, or Lake Tahoe.
Unfortunately, Smart Growth and New Urbanist proponents like to cut trees down.
The older areas of Bend i.e. Awbrey Butte have large lots and native trees. The entire city could be like this if not for Mandatory Smart Growth which is enforced by law, from the DLCD
Officials, including the DLCD Director and the LDCD Board.
Most people in Bend do not want the heavy traffic and microsized housing and university campuses. Californians vastly prefer Truckee, Lake Tahoe, and Reno, which are spread out.
See – Clearcutting for Smart Growth – Someday there will be no more trees in Bend, just 10 story condos, like Boulder –
https://smartgrowthusa.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/timber-companies-destroy-trees-for-smart-growth/
Oregon LCDC – http://www.oregon.gov/lcd/pages/lcdc.aspx#Link_to_Meetings_Page
Oregon DLCD – http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/pages/director.aspx#About_Acting_Director_Jim_Rue
-Tom Lane
Where to start with the insanity of Tom Lane’s comments?
1. The City of Bend has neither the financial ability nor the political will to pay to build a campus. Oh, also it’s not an institution of higher education. As for buying 230 acres for a campus, Lane clearly has no understanding of OSU’s specific plans for its Bend campus, because it doesn’t need that much land, and Lane has no understanding of the budget realities of this state (or city).
2. There is no merit to the argument that a modern university cannot be good unless it exists on a campus the size of a traditional university. No merit.
3. There is also no merit to the idea that a larger campus or town would be better for environmental conservation. For one, a larger campus would require more landscaping and therefore use more water. Also, more buildings use more water. This is pretty obvious stuff. And in a larger town, “spread out” = sprawl and lots more transportation problems.
4. The reason OSU did not pick Juniper Ridge has nothing to do with your conspiracy theories. The reason nothing exists at Juniper Ridge, including an OSU campus, is that there is no sewer service and the costs to install it are prohibitive. When are the NIMBY morons going to figure this out?
5. The statement, “Most people in Bend do not want the … microsized … university campuses” is a flat-out lie. Bendites support the OSU westside campus 2-1.
6. All of the schools Lane mentions are some of the same schools OSU studied in designing the Bend campus. OSU just came to different conclusions than Lane because the OSU planners are not idiots.
7. Oregon’s land use laws are the best in the country. They have prevented countless miles of sprawl. The Willamette Valley would look like a greener version of the LA basin if not for our land use laws. If you don’t understand that fact, you’re either dumb or a developer.
“Nimby Insanity” is typical of the people that are supporting this poor site that was chosen by OSU. Calling people “morons”, “idiots”, and “NIMBY’S” in response to a well thought out post by Tom Lane just shows your inability to have a civil discussion. The people opposed to this site are legitimately concerned about the impact on the livability of westside Bend. They are also concerned about the shortsighted planning that will attempt to shoehorn this university into the most crowded part of town with no room to expand, no housing for students, and no infrastructure to support it. I would surmise that more likely you are the one who is a developer, or someone who has a financial interest in putting this college on the west side. Name calling pretty much negates anything you have to offer to the conversation.
This campus is a bad bad bad idea in this location.
Why would you put a college on a road that leads to most the major recreation in Bend, that make no sense. This will ruin everything, all athletes will move, lazy people will stay, Bend will be lame.
Dear “Nimby Insanity” –
Have you seen mountain towns that are similar to Bend that are “spread out in the pines,” such as Flagstaff, Truckee, Durango, and the City of South Lake Tahoe, CA? Although Flagstaff has an urban growth boundary, the others do not. Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona is actually 740 acres, not 232 as I erroneously posted. This allows lots of space for native trees, athletic facilities, the skydome, and much more.
The State of Oregon DLCD said several years ago that Bend could not add nearly 10,000 acres to its urban growth area. Now, they’re only going to add about 1,500. That is unfortunate for Oregon State University which could have a large sattelite campus of at least a couple hundred acres, perhaps north of town.
As for community colleges, Lake Tahoe Community College is 164 acres, in the trees with a tree ordinance.
Bend’s very own “Central Oregon Community College” is 202 acres, and at least 140 of those acres were established in 1962, before the state had a growth management act.
Fort Lewis College in Durango . . . is 362 acres, from their web site, https://www.fortlewis.edu/physicalplant/Departments/Grounds.aspx
” Our Grounds crew is charged with the maintenance and appearance of our 362 acre campus. The campus includes approximately 65 acres of lawns and athletic fields, 159 acres of natural habitat, 22 acres of parking and 25.5 miles of walks, stairs, and roadways. ” Very nice !
Truckee – the Sierra College – Truckee campus, is 72 acres.
The nice thing about a college, whether it’s a community college or university, it becomes an amenity to the community. Because college campuses have low density and lots of trees, then they become like public parks, places where people can walk their dogs and kids can bicycle and skateboard. Bend needs more parks because they’re being turned into Smart Growth Towers and condos such as Troy Field which has sold for nearly 2 million dollars to a condo developer.
As for your comment on public utilities, a college campus does not require much water, since it does not operate 24/7/365. Natural vegetation of Ponderosa Pines, sagebrush, and juniper trees do not require irrigation. Furthermore, the State of Oregon can pay for sewer lines, they aren’t that expensive. As for the issue of sprawl, I have never heard anyone describe a college campus in this manner. As for Oregon’s land use laws, they are not present in California or Colorado, and neither Truckee, Lake Tahoe, or Durango contains endless miles of sprawl. In fact, the city limits of Durango are 50% open space. Bend, however, will look like “Vertical Sprawl” if Eastern Oregon doesn’t secede from Oregon, and develop the way that it wants to – at the lower densities found in Mountain Towns in California, Arizona, and Colorado, where trees are not cut down. Tom Lane
The story of the OSU un democratic usurpal of the Wesrside site is a case for a Fed’l FBI RICO investigation! When they put property owners, developers and Westside reslotors on the ‘search’ team for a site, they opened themselves up for investigation.
That employees of OSU are the proponents (and magic thinkers re: transportation problems) just adds to the illegalities involved in this site.