Last night marked the first open public meeting of the “Truth in Site Coalition,” a citizen group concerned with the proposed location of the new OSU Cascades campus on the westside of Bend. Here’s what you need to know:
–>While the campus is set to open in the fall of 2015, the group is threatening to take legal action against the location, a 10-acre lot and former pumice mine on Chandler and Simpson Ave.
–>During the first public meeting at The Bend Armory, around 200 people showed support for the coalition’s mission, asked questions and expressed concerns about the current proposed location.
–>Repeated concerns included increased traffic, parking, surrounding neighborhood property values, student housing and the cost burden of other improved infrastructure that the University will require.
–>“This is not a done deal,” repeated Scott Morgan, a spokes person for the coalition. He also made clear that the time frame for the site selection and opening of the campus by fall of 2015 is unrealistic, saying that it’s a better timeframe for building a custom home than a well-planned university.
–>The coalition made it clear that they are not in opposition of a 4-year university in Bend. They claim to be proponents of a well thought out location for said school and a measure of public input on site selection.
–>The coalition plans to take legal and technical opposition to the campus location by hiring a traffic engineer, a land use lawyer and soil specialists.
–>The group says they have raised $10,000 of a required $50,000 (likely more after taking donations at last night’s meeting) to take the legal action they have planned.
–>Although the meeting was put on by private citizens, Becky Johnson, vice president of OSU Cascades, was in attendence as well as several planners from the city to hear public concerns.
You can learn more on the group’s Facebook Page: OSU Cascades- TRUTH in Site
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2014.
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Never in my life have I seen such ridiculous NIMBY hypocrisy.
You think there is a traffic problem on the westside of Bend? Yeah, chances are YOU’RE THE PROBLEM. And there is no solution that involves you continuing to drive around everywhere by yourself in your SUV. Just ask the folks in Houston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles if declining to build mass transit infrastructure and instead building more roads and more lanes solved their problems.
If you are healthy and capable, you need to be considering walking or biking the 1.6 miles to REI or Newport. Instead of complaining about the impacts of new residents (you know, the same impacts YOU caused), you need to be advocating for a better mass transit system for those who cannot or do not want to bike or walk.
And the idea that a land use lawyer is going to help is laughable. There is no legal issue with the use of the land or the planning done for this use. Suing OSU or Bend will only waste taxpayer money and will get you nowhere. Instead of using frivolous litigation to make your point, maybe try participating in any of the advisory committees, talking with your city council member, or any other productive way of participating in our democracy.
Most revealing of all is your concern about “surrounding property values” going down due to all the students moving in. I suppose even though the exact same concern would apply to neighborhoods near Juniper Ridge if the school were to be sited there, that’s not a problem for you since you do not live in that neighborhood. You’d rather have someone else’s property values go down.
And that’s what this all comes down to: Elitist Hypocrisy. You got your fancy house on the westside, and you caused many of the same impacts you complain about, but now you want to declare the westside closed. You’re on board, so pull the ladder up, right? Maybe you should move to a neighborhood around Juniper Ridge if you don’t like the changes on the westside. Oh, what’s that? You don’t want to live out there because it’s not as nice as the westside? Hmm.
Lastly, your use of the term “Truth” in your name is perfectly Orwellian. You talked over and over again about Juniper Ridge and conveniently ignored the TRUTH that the site has a huge development surcharge due to its lack of infrastructure. So here’s some truth for you: Juniper Ridge is $30 MILLION MORE EXPENSIVE than the westside site. You should be called the “Old, Grumpy & Clueless Coalition.”
So, ‘dj’, what’s your profit motive in this scheme?
I’ve been lied to by Bend’s employees too many times to believe anything they say!
Any resistance to the west side location does seem overly NIMBY to me, too. It comes across as: I first don’t want a bunch of students and traffic around me, let me try to create an argument in opposition second. Traffic concerns are legitimate. I suggest make driving inconvenient and develop other modes that are more convenient to deal with the issue rather than just sending the campus somewhere else. You want to have an appealing location and setting to make the campus a destination. Juniper Ridge would make OSU Cascades a commuter campus where someone might go for night classes after their full day at work. Putting it on the west side will draw people in from elsewhere and make it an actual college atmosphere. Sorry, but the door didn’t close behind you when you moved to Bend.
P.S. I live on the west side, too.
If I was King of Central Oregon, the ideal place for the campus is Redmond. A great boost for Redmond, Bend and Central Oregon. Bend doesn’t need it. What a cool Central Oregon that would be. And Redmond has as much, if not more, access to Central Oregon attractions and conveniences.