City Delays
Development Agreement
In a press release issued on
October 23, the city of Bend
announced that “there will be a
delay until early 2008 in
bringing forward a development
agreement for Juniper Ridge. It
seems the city received a letter
from the Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT) indicating
that further building beyond Les
Schwab’s headquarters will not
be allowed at Juniper Ridge.
That is until a transportation
improvement plan has been
identified and a funding
strategy is in place for the
intersection of US 97 and Cooley
Road, a solution which is
estimated to cost from 15 to 30
million dollars. According to
Ron Garzini, Special Project
Manager for the city of Bend,
“Until estimates and engineering
are firm and funds are
identified, and an agreement is
approved by ODOT, it would be
premature to go further with a
Juniper Ridge development
agreement.” At the City meeting
conducted earlier this month,
Councilmember Mark Capell
indicated the draft development
agreement would be ready for
public comment around November
1. The letter from ODOT has
clearly caused the city to pull
back for the time being and now
we’re looking at 2008 before we
know what the city and master
developer want to agree to
regarding the Juniper Ridge Work
Center development.
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General
Membership Meeting Around the
Corner
The report to the membership,
know as the General Membership
Meeting is scheduled for
Tuesday, October 30 at 7:30 a.m.
at the downtown Tower Theatre.
The first 100 attendees will be
presented with a nice gift and
title sponsor BendBroadband will
also be providing attendees with
a gift. Members attending will
learn about the financial
condition of the Chamber, the
2007 accomplishments, meet the
new income 2008 Board of
Directors, and learn about some
exciting plans for next year.
Call the Chamber at 382-3221 to
make a reservation, coffee and
light refreshments will be
served. The meeting is expected
to last for an hour.
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The Chamber’s
at the Table
In May of this year a couple of
dozen property owners,
neighborhood and business people
spent two days working up some
ideas to address the traffic
problems at US 97 and Cooley
Road. This week the city of
Bend formed a group designed to
be a sounding board for the
evaluation of the three-quarter
of dozen possible “mid-term”
solutions the May group
developed. A mid-term solution
will address access issues for
Juniper Ridge and surrounding
development until 2015. The
city’s goal is to have the
sounding board, technical
advisory team and the steering
committee (made up of three City
Councilmembers and the Region 4
Director for ODOT) identify a
preferred solution which can be
recommend to the City Council by
the end of the year. Over the
next three months, the sounding
board committee will meet three
times. A short-term US 97/Cooley
Road solution allows only the
Les Schwab Headquarters project
to move forward. The mid-term
solution will address traffic
growth to 2015 and the long-term
solution is intended to
eliminate the traffic lights at
Cooley and Robal roads and US 97
as well as separate US 97
through traffic from local
traffic. I will keep you
informed as to the solution
which will be recommended to the
city.
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Last Week’s
Survey Question
What qualities and skills do you
want to see in our next City
Manager?
Here is a sampling of some of
the responses received:
“It
does not matter what the people
of Bend want, the City Council
well hire someone that is in
line with their views of the
city, not that of the general
public.”
“A person with integrity and
absence of greed.”
“Hire a true public servant.”
“Somebody with common sense
to serve the common good of the
community.”
It’s clear from the responses; members have some strong
feeling about what they would
like to see in the new City
Manager. City Council, are you
listening?
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Coming
events
Nov 7: Economic Forecast
Breakfast at the new
Riverhouse Conference Center
from 7:30 to 9:15. RSVP by
registering at
www.bendchamber.org/EFB.
Reserved seating through table
sponsorships are still available
for as little as $325 for 5
seats or $595 for 10 seats.
Individuals seats are just $45
each.
Nov 9: Legislative Policy
Breakfast at Bend Golf and
Country Club from 7:00 to 8:30
a.m. RSVP is required for this
breakfast meeting. Call
382-3221 to make a reservation.
This meeting will be part two of
the Town Hall discussion on
Juniper Ridge. How about the Ron
Garzini memo? Is the deal off
with the Master Developer? How
about the land changes relative
to the UGB and Juniper Ridge?
Should the city buy out Ray
Kuratek and the Juniper Ridge
Partners, LLC? Let your voice be
heard! This is the last
breakfast meeting for 2007 and
we will be unveiling the new
2008 program changes. They’re
exciting, to say the least!
