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UGB Committee Narrows Options to Three

BEND, OR -- A steering committee has approved three options to expand Bend's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). These plans map the area where the city will be allowed to grow, with a 20-year supply of land for housing, employment and other urban uses.

 

Brian Rankin, Bend's UGB Project Manager, tells KBND News, "We're going to take these three different scenarios, as well as the supplemental analysis area, and we're going to do more rigorous modeling - sewer modeling, transportation modeling and water modeling. And, we'll also do an additional analysis on these areas, as well, to learn more and see if there are advantages and disadvantages to one area versus another."

 

The state struck down the city's UGB expansion plan in 2010, saying it was too big of a land request. These new scenarios lower the request from 8,000 to 2,000 acres. Rankin says there's still much to be done before a plan can be sent back to the state. "This runs through our advisory committee first, then they report to a UGB steering committee made up of the full City Council, County Commissioners, as well as two planning commissioners. They will say which looks like the final scenario and we'll roll with that. But, ultimately it's the City Council and Board of County Commissioners that will end up needing to approve this."

 

Rankin hopes local approval of the final option will come by April. The plan would then be sent to the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development for ultimate approval. That could come by the end of 2016.

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