The 1,500-acre area of Juniper Ridge was sold to the City of Bend for $1 by Deschutes County in 1990, and has since been considered for a number of different purposes. The land was given under the pretense that it would be “employment land,” zoned commercial, industrial or mixed use. An ambitious master plan that imagined a four-year university, neighborhoods, a town center and industrial areas was scrapped during the Great Recession, and since then ideas for the land have come and gone. But, with sewer infrastructure built and plans to extend roads, the land can now accommodate some of the long-awaited projects.
On Wed., Oct. 6, the Bend City Council directed City staff to move forward to create a public works campus on 26 acres of Juniper Ridge. The campus will house the City’s utilities, engineering and transportation and mobility departments. Facilities manager Grant Burke said that current office space was tight and storage for machinery used by the utilities and transportation departments was lacking.
“Those two departments come with big things,” Burke said. “They come with big vehicles, heavy equipment, generators, and you’ve got to be able to find a place to store all that, and we’re really running out of space, not to mention fleet there.”
Residents have looked to Juniper Ridge as an opportunity for affordable housing and for unhoused services. Oregon land use laws require cities to zone enough employment and housing land in a 20-year plan. However, Bend’s growth is so explosive that housing can’t be built fast enough to retain even remotely moderate housing costs.
“What the community started asking us is, why aren’t you using your city-owned land in Juniper Ridge for affordable housing,” Recovery Strategy and Impact Officer Carolyn Eagan said. “And so, in December 2020, the Council adopted the plans for the 500 acres of Juniper Ridge, the land that’s subdivided, and said we’re willing to look at the land that’s not already developed for housing.”
The recent House Bill 2006 gave cities greater flexibility in creating both shelters and affordable housing, allowing them to forego land-use restrictions.
“In the 2020 legislative session, the state legislature made it possible for any publicly owned land to be used for emergency shelters or deed-restricted affordable housing, and basically said, the state legislature does not care what the land use designation or the zoning is, and if it’s publicly owned, then that public agencies, so in this case the City, has the authority to develop it as some sort of emergency shelter or as affordable housing,” Eagan said.
During the Oct. 6 meeting, City Manager Eric King said there will be more opportunities for these kind of projects as the adjacent Cooley and Talus roads are extended, but the City is still in the process of exploring its authority over the land.
“Council is saying, ‘is it even possible to use some of the city-owned land inside the city that’s designated for employment, but using our authority that the legislature gave us to do something other than build more offices, more factories, more research and development facility, so that we can better provide for all of our committee members who don’t have a roof over their heads?’” Eagan said.
Eagan said everything is on the table for potential projects, but that the process is slow-moving and it could take time before something materializes.
“The plan for this was to develop over the next 20 years as buildings, as offices, not necessarily as housing, so they’re just asking the question,” Eagan said. “They’re not asking the question, ‘Can this be used for x?’ They’re asking, ‘Can this be used not for employment lands?’”
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2021.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Instead of sticking all the homeless campground in our neighborhoods why don’t they put them out there!!
Yes why didn’t they build all the affordable housing out there rather than shoving them in our neighborhoods?
Once again, Bend city planners have three brain cells combined.
They have all this land yet they still want to shove slum homeless campgrounds in our neighborhood, building three-story affordable apartment buildings With lack of parking in our backyards, yet they have all this land to build on and Juniper Ridge!!!
I am so sick and tired of Bend, and the liberal idiots that are running this place,
Somebody needs to contact Kate Brown and stop her from busing all the homeless from Portland to Bend!!
You know what they say, Democrats, especially entitled Woke Democrats, with their utopia, Marxist attitude, Will destroy any city they are in charge of.
Look at Eugene, Portland, Salem,San Francisco, Los Angeles, all ran by democrats, just like Bend, better yet look at the White House and the swamp in Washington the majority ran by Democrats and look what happened to our country in nine months, with The build back better Socialism agenda.
It’s time to look for a red state, at least they believe in law and order, The constitution, And the bill of rights, The Democrats just make up their own constitution as they go,
by the way the vaccine mandate is 100% unconstitutional, especially When 70% of the Vaccinated still got Covid and transmitted Covid, as for the mask mandate, that’s a joke, because the mask doesn’t work, even the box will tell you it doesn’t stop COVID, but breathing your toxins in and out will give you lung damage and health problems. wake up Democrats!!
couple of clarifications. #1. don’t now where these quotes came from….”Residents have looked to Juniper Ridge as an opportunity for affordable housing and for unhoused services.” #2.“What the community started asking us is, why aren’t you using your city-owned land in Juniper Ridge for affordable housing,” Recovery Strategy and Impact Officer Carolyn Eagan said. #3. if the term “residents” or “community” it is meant SOME residents that live in Bend, then it might be correct. However, if what is meant is that residents who live adjacent to or in very close proximity to or who had to be evacuated from due to fire in Juniper Ridge caused by an homeless couple’s RV, or who have been victims of theft and vandalism, or those who live a stones throw away from the debacle that the City turns a blind eye to on Hunnel Road, have said this, then that is incorrect.
there are a majority of us in that category that are in support of development of Juniper Ridge as originally planned as well as for real solutions (not just sheltering) for the homeless in our city as well affordable housing for citizens that are unemployed, underemployed, or physically unable to to work, but NOT in support of temporary or permanent camps to include, managed or unmanned camps or RV parks. There is a great deal of support for getting immediate help to get women and children who are experiencing homeless into an existing apartment, hotel, motel, rental unit, using City/County/State/Fed resources that are available. There is a great deal of support for getting our Vets the dignity they deserve and they don’t deserve to live in a camp. There is a great deal of support for treating the addicted not just enabling them. there is a great deal of support for treating everyone in the City with respect by providing a clean and safe environment for all.
They walk among us!
Go look at all the homeless groups all over Bend, Look at the 97 on and off accesses of campgrounds, look at the street over by Lowe’s for example, do you ever notice how much garbage they collect? And if you look at most of these people, they want to be there, they chose that lifestyle, 90% of them are on drugs or drunk, panhandle all day, party all night, Blatantly walking in stores and stealing merchandise, breaking into cars, breaking in homes… but the Bend city Council wants to put them in your neighborhood, not out in Juniper Ridge where they belong in the boondocks, but right in your backyard of your 500K home
You worked your butt off and saved to achieve and made the right choices in life.
Yet, we Award these people?
Oregon made pot legal, made the use of hard-core drugs Or possession a misdemeanor or just a slap on the wrist and you wonder why there is a problem?
no one gets prosecuted for theft under 1000 bucks!
I bet if you shut down all the pot stores in Town, you would lose The majority of your homeless population
I bet if Las Vegas shut down, the Indian reservations would have more business than they could handle because that’s where the gamblers would go.
It’s called common sense!!!
Now some Wok wacko group is telling everybody to open up their driveway to Homeless RVs or give them bedrooms in your home……Are these people out of their minds? There’s approximately 12 million jobs out there, even Amazon is paying 15 bucks an hour with benefits with no experience…. get a job!!!
Y’all need to stop complying to this garbage!!!
You should realize Juniper Ridge borders the family- friendly Boyd Acres neighborhood and two schools, Lava Ridge Elementary and Sky View Middle School. There is no way to provide access to retail if you put a camp out there without having them walk past our two schools and along Cooley (what should be a safe-route to school). The 9th street location made much more sense -near services, jobs and retail.