BEND, OR -- Phase one of Bend's transportation plan update was released Tuesday. It contains a list of citywide transportation projects and a preliminary look at ways to fund them. Senior Planner Karen Swirsky tells KBND News, "It's time to bring it up to speed and also to make it in step with the changes that we made a couple years ago to the Urban Growth Boundary." She says, "The transportation plan that we've been working off of is about 20 years old. It's been amended here and there over the years, but it's from a different time; Bend was a different place 20 years ago. So, there's a lot that's changed in terms of technology, the tools that we have for planning. So, it should be a much more modern and up-to-date report."

Swirsky says the Transportation Plan Advisory Committee, made up of citizens appointed by City Council, developed goals, determined the framework, and created a funding assessment for the plan update. Over the next year, as part of phase two, the Growth Management Department will compile all the data, prioritize projects, and match ideas with funding. 

Over the next 20 years, Swirsky says, it's important that residents have easy, uninterrupted service, "We know, roughly, how many people, how many jobs, how many houses, so how do we make sure that all of our systems, transportation, water and sewer, support that." She adds, "There's a lot of change happening in Bend, and it's both challenging and exciting to figure out how best to accommodate it."

Click HERE to view the full Phase One report; you'll find other materials from Phase One HERE.