City sign
crackdown brings protests from
real estate industry
An overflow crowd of mostly
those from the real estate
industry packed the Bend City
Council chambers on Tuesday to
voice their displeasure with the
city’s new campaign to crack
down on signs placed in the
public right-of-way. Bend city
Community Development Director
Mel Oberst called the meeting to
try to explain why the city now
is vigorously enforcing the
right-of-way section of a
revised sign code passed by the
council six years ago. Oberst
said the city has been receiving
an increasing number of
complaints from the public and
the council about real estate
(and other “sandwich board”
signs) being placed on streets,
sidewalks or even handicapped
parking spaces. Speakers at the
meeting said up to 80 percent of
their traffic at open houses
finds the way to homes for sale
by seeing directional signs
placed at key intersections near
a sale. “This is our
livelihood,” one speaker said.
Oberst said one enforcement
officer is working on citing
illegal signs, but two more will
be temporarily added in
September in an increased
enforcement effort. Mike Smith,
owner of M.C. Smith Sign and
Graphic Design and a member of
the committee that re-wrote the
city’s sign code in 2000, urged
the city to “tweak” some
provisions of the sign code he
called flawed. The Bend Chamber
is closely following this issue
to ensure the city’s efforts
don’t harm member businesses.
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No impeachment
resolution from Bend City
Council
A resolution to impeach
President George Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney, placed on
Wednesday’s Bend City Council
agenda by Councilor Linda
Johnson, died for a lack of a
motion after a short discussion
by councilors. The councilors
apparently were following an
opinion voiced by Councilor
Peter Gramlich, who said he
didn’t think the resolution was
germane to the city’s business.
Johnson placed the resolution on
the agenda at the urging of some
activists who showed up at the
past two council meetings urging
the council to support
impeachment. Several cities,
including Berkeley, Calif., have
passed such resolutions, but
none in Oregon has.
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A couple of
changes in Chamber events
The Chamber’s breakfast workshop
at Bend Golf & Country Club
titled “Workforce Housing
Solutions 101” has been moved
forward a day to Friday,
September 28. The event,
scheduled for 7:30 to 9 a.m.,
will focus on community-based
solutions to Central Oregon’s
workforce housing needs.
Also, due to high demand for the Aug. 8 Chamber
Professional Development series
event titled “How to Keep
Difficult People from Ruining
Your Day,” featuring conflict
resolution expert Lee Jay
Berman, a second expanded
luncheon, the same day titled
“Difficult People Part 2: The
Art and Science of Negotiation”
has been added from 11:30 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. at the AmeriTel
Inn. If interested
Register Here or contact
Lindi DeWolf at
lindi@bendchamber.org by
noon Monday, August 6..
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What should
the city be focusing on? UGB
expansion, traffic
Last week’s survey question was,
What’s the top issue the city of
Bend should be focusing on? We
received several suggestions,
but the top issues were Juniper
Ridge/the expansion of the Urban
Growth Boundary (UGB) and
affordable housing. Some
comments:
“…There are so many issues surrounding the city’s
vision of Juniper Ridge that
will impact every Central
Oregonian forever to come: lack
of industrial land, lack of
bidders on an identical Request
for Proposals that might have
saved taxpayer dollars, monies
already being spent on
consultants for the education
component before the
infrastructure (transportation)
plans are approved, and what
appears to be inclusion in the
UGB at the expanse of other
lands that might be serviced
earlier than Juniper Ridge,
easing our lack of developable
land that so contributes to the
lack of affordable housing, etc.
It should be of grave concern to
every Bendite …”
“Affordable housing. If we don’t get a check on housing
costs, we are going to lose our
service sector employee base. It
was tough enough for those who
commuted from La Pine or
Prineville or Redmond before gas
prices got to be what they are.
…”
“Traffic. I’d ride my bike all over town if there were
a bike path off the road.”
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