Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I just Commissioner, we should take a like a family photo. Maybe like a second meeting also. I think go ahead and start. Okay. Today's Monday, December 8th, 2025. I will go ahead and call this meeting to order. We'll start with roll call. I'm just This is John's last meeting. So, thank you.

John, I'm not here. Bob Crescent is still here. Scott Winters, Marco Clinton, Suzanne Johansson, Nathan Milford, Erin Leen. Great. First, we will do a visitor section. Sorry. Sorry. I muted you. Oh, perfect.

Okay. Um, so I do, it does look like I have potentially a couple visitors that are here to discuss items not on today's agenda. Um, and I know one of them is going to be an update on Project Wildfire. Um a few here in person if you could raise your hand if it's not related to project wildfire or tonight's meeting agenda items. It's not. Okay. Um what's your name? Patty McCorm. Patty. Okay. Patty, we'll go ahead and have you start. Yep.

Hello again. Um I'll make this short and sweet. I'm Patty McCormack. I'm the land use chair for Aubrey Neighborhood District. And first and foremost, I wanted to thank all of you for recommending and assigning planning commission liaison for our neighborhood districts. Um, we have met with Bob, uh, Mark Gentle, who's our new chair, Ted Bayer, who's a member at large, and myself met with Bob back on November 25th. Had, I think, a great conversation. It was a lot of just kind of background information, learning, understanding kind of where we're each coming from from. And I just want to encourage um the commission to get us to the next step which I think would be some sort of an open roundt workshopppy kind of discussion where all of you come together with as many of us land use chairs or representatives from the uh neighborhood districts as possible to really start diving into some topics that we think are really important to us. I obviously am not expecting anything before Christmas or New Year's. Um, but I just would like to put a put a plug in there, you know, as soon as possible within January that you guys are willing to do this. Uh, we're all on board. So, thank you.

Thank you. And I'm sorry, John, you're leaving. Thank you. Uh, I have a Robin church and there's no marking on here. So, if you are here to discuss something that is not on tonight's agenda item or project wildfire, you can come forward. And the same goes for lawn did put a new so I'm assuming it's for tonight's. It's for the R327 projectire. Okay. All right. Great. Um, next we'll go ahead and move into the project wildfire.

Come on down. So, give me a few minute moments. I have to share my screen and figure out what I'm doing here. Work. That's good. All right. All good. I think so.

Okay. Um, thank you very much for allowing us this time tonight and for your interest in hearing what we have to say. My name is Lon Leniv. I'm an Aubrey but resident. I also am a on our firewise committee. I'm a volunteer property assessor in Aubrey but I also do that for the Ben Fire as well. Uh, previously I spent four years on our board at which point I got heavily involved in Firewise and helped build out our capabilities and and got real serious about the Firewise program on Aubry but I've also been involved with Project Wildfire uh since 2022 and currently I co-chair the project wildfire neighborhood coalition which I'll talk about a little bit more in a minute. The purpose today is I am representing the coalition tonight and through a recent overwhelming vote by our membership, we ask that the city of Bend formally adopt the Oregon Residential Specialty Code R27, wildfire hazard mitigation. This code would address new dwellings and their accessory structures with construction and material requirements based on best practice mitigation strategies. Uh Robin Church will explain R 327 in more detail following my remarks. While this new code wouldn't address existing buildings, it is a very important first step in adopting game-changing requirements aimed at mitigating the wildfire disasters we are growing accustomed to seeing in our state and on the West Coast. This forward-thinking code will improve the survivability of the 30,000 homes expected to be built in Bend over the next 20 years. It also directly addresses one of the three key pillars of good wildfire preparedness management. Those three being home

hardening, defensible space, and evacuation planning. A little bit about the coalition. We are a subcommittee of project wildfire, the dashes countywide organization formed in 2004 to provide long-term coordinated wildfire mitigation strategies for the county. Project Wildfire's mission is to prevent deaths, injuries, property losses, and environmental damage caused by wildfires. The neighborhood coalition was formed in early 2023 to support the mission of Project Wildfire. Specifically, the coalition's mission is to support Project Wildfire's mission by improving fire adapted readiness one neighborhood at a time. We formed a coalition to be a boots on the ground resource of Project Wildfire that focuses on recruiting, educating, and supporting communities across the county that either want to become Firewise designated or who want to expand their Firewise capabilities. We want communities to avoid having to recreate the wheel when trying to develop fire readiness programs. We can greatly accelerate the community's ability to ramp up their capabilities by sharing our expertise, e experience, processes, and other resources that get them quickly up to speed. When we started, we had about 25 communities involved. Two and a half years later, we've grown to over 80 communities, and we have a number of others that are in the pipeline getting their Fire Wise designations. Communities run the gamut in terms of size, location, and structure. So we have large, small, rural, urban, HOA organized and non-HOA organized communities as members. The membership also includes an impressive list of individuals with wildfire specific expertise from a variety of local, county, state, and

federal organizations and agencies. And these include the state fire marshall's office, Oregon Department of Forestry, Bend Fire and Rescue, OSU Extension, US Forest Service, and Project Wildfire Dash County forestry staff. And our third membership group of our coalition are independent industry experts with a variety of specialties critical to our cause. Those include insurance, power company, wildfire consulting, fuel remediation, and arborous landscaping service sectors. So with that those remarks, I want to thank you again for your time and your interest. And but before I turn it over to Robin, I want to mention something on a on a personal basis, a personal comment from me. I've had a crash course over the last 5 years on wildfire risks and wildfire mitigation practices. I've directly observed untold number of properties to help improve fire preparedness. We have and will continue to make progress one one neighborhood at a time if needed. But what is really needed is code adoption like we are asking for this evening. Whether it focuses on home hardening or defensible space, the only way to really accelerate wildfire safety is to require it of property owners. We need codes and regulation with teeth in them. Otherwise, as we do now, we are simply asking people to voluntarily do what's right. And that is proving to be somewhat somewhat of a slow road. Certainly better than nothing, but nowhere near what the progress would look like if we could implement and enforce best practice wildfire preparedness code such as would be done with the implementation of our 327. So, thank you. Thank you, Luan. Um, and thank you commissioners for the opportunity to share information tonight about the coalition and R327,

Oregon's wildfire mitigation standards for new residential uh, construction, which is now shelf ready, um, and ready and available for local adoption. I'd like to start tonight with a brief video produced by a colleague of ours, Toby Weiss, who lives in the Sisters area and was affected by the flat fire. um just this past August. Um this video demonstrates the importance of wildfire mitigation to our region. So now I get to stop share and share again. Um, should I turn my volume on? Is it like not yet? I haven't hit ahead yet.

We'll see. Do you get confident over here that it's going to work?

You might need to start at the beginning. So I turned on my my exact. Okay. Maybe best practice would be maybe share it on this computer directly. Um, we're so sorry. This this is a brand new um microphone, I'm sorry, uh, speaker and we're not entirely certain why it's not working. Um, if you want to come pull it up here, we could probably show it to the room. Um, oh yeah, it might be Have you bet involved?

Do you Is it Do you know the web address? actually do this.

So, we're a little Google cheat here and hope that this gets us there quicker. I'm sorry. It clearly knows I use Google Maps for my work, y'all. Sorry about this delay. We u retested it and worked. You go to the radio itself. Um it is if you search adopt R327 and video

27. Yeah. Now for wildfire. How many of this video says this is where the host is. Sorry guys. there. Click video city sisters, right? Your search. Um, no, no. Just put in Vimeo. Vio and it'll

Yeah, Vio. We have a vice chair. I'm a little I use YouTube. I'm sorry, y'all. No. No. That's a great video though, but it's much longer. It's about an hour and a half, so I don't know. That long get rid of now for wildlife. Maybe that cuz I searched Vimeo uh adopt R 327 and it was there it is. Draft one, right there at the draft one. Okay, great. Thanks, Scott. Actually, is this not it? That's it. That's it.

Not a lot. Right now, most homes in central Oregon are built with materials that question. Maybe we can send a link to everyone later to watch it. So, actually, let me go back one more one. I want to make sure.

Scott, did you see a better version? Uh, that was the one and it it seemed to work. I mean, it works. I'll start. Yeah. I'm going to use two.

Here. I'm going to let you go ahead and since you got that on my hand. Got it. No, it's just one that you said wasn't the correct one. No, that is right. I'm so sorry.

Oregon are built with materials that wildfire feeds on. Open vents, wood sighting, decking, fencing, bark mulch, one ember, just one, and any of it can ignite in seconds. R327 is a new residential building code amendment. It can be the line between destruction and survival. Hardened homes block embers, resist ignition, and stop a small spark from becoming a neighborhood disaster. Dashes County is growing fast. How we build today will decide how we survive tomorrow. Tell local leaders adopt R327 now. A safer central Oregon starts with the choices we make before the next fire. So tonight we respectfully

Oops. My audio is off. It's fine now. It was our speaker. You turned the volume up for the video.

Oh, it's okay. Thank you. Um, so tonight we respectfully ask that you and council um expedite the review and adoption of R327 across Bend by local ordinance as it is a smart, cost-effective first step toward a safer, more resilient Bend. R327 is Oregon's home hardening code for new residential construction developed by the Oregon Building Codes Division. These standards apply to new homes and their accessory structures to address key vulnerabilities where homes most often ignite. Roofs and gutters, exterior walls, overhang projection vents, and the like. R327 provisions reflect decades of proven research and focus on ignition resistance, smart common sense building practices that can significantly reduce risk from both wildfire spread and structure to structure confilration, a growing threat in dense communities experiencing ember storms and winddriven fire events. We can't eliminate the year- round threat of wildfire, but we can restrict its reach. Wildfire is unlike other perils we face in that preparation requires both personal and collective action. The best protection for an individual home is when mitigation actions are taken at the parcel and community level. In November, Project Wildfire Neighborhood Coalition members voted overwhelmingly to support the adoption of R327 by by Dashuites County and local municipalities. Sisters adopted R327 via ordinance last month with mandatory compliance on April 1st, 2026. Time to align with standard building code updates and accommodate the submission of projects already in

design. The Dashes County Board of Commissioners voted last month to expedite its review and the planning commission will be holding a public hearing later this week with staff recommending countywide adoption of R327 for all new residential development in unincorporated unincorporated areas. We ask you and council to be part of this regional effort and move quickly to adopt R327 in Bend. Adoption directly advances Bend City Council goals to build wildfire resiliency through actions that reduce risks and evaluate and update codes to reflect best practices for wildfire resiliency. We recognize that Bend is growing very rapidly. The city has 50,000 existing housing units. And I should note that even new homes on the west side require home hardening. Bend aims to permit 4,000 new units by 2027 and over 30,000 more over the next 20 years. The question is not if we will grow, but to what standard will we build. We live in one of the most fireprone regions in the country. No part of Bend is immune. Every new home built without baseline, wildfire resistant standards adds long-term risk, retrofit costs, and potential loss to our community. Timing is critical. How we build today determines whether our community will be more resilient or more broadly vulnerable to future fires. R327 matters because home hardened hardened homes protect future growth, affordability, and stability. Basic home hardening measures such as ember resistant vents, ignition resistant

sighting, and non-combustible roofing and defenseful space design are coste effective upfront investments that can help prevent catastrophic loss later. Cost does matter. Research from Headarters Economics shows that building to wildfire resistant standards adds less than 3% to construction costs, far less than the financial impacts families will face after a fire. In an era where twothirds of homeowners are uninsured or underinsured, wildfire loss often results in displacement, financial hardship, or destitution. Building fire hardened homes is not only a safety issue. It is a long-term affordability strategy for Bend. R327 matters because hardened homes protect our outdoor driven economy. When homes burn, tourism declines, businesses close, jobs are lost, housing becomes more expensive, local tax revenue drops, recovery stalls. Wildfires have profound economic impacts. Nearly half of the cost of wildfire disasters falls on local communities through lost re revenue, damaged infrastructure, and long-term displacement. For every dollar invested in wildfire resistant development, $210 in future losses can be avoided. According to Headwaters Economics, that is arguably one of the most coste effective investments for resilience available to local government. Investing in fire hardened homes can reduce loss, particularly when coupled with vegetation management and neighborhood design, among other things such as evacuation and fire fading

capabilities. R327 matters because hardened homes restore insurability and keep real estate transactions moving. Across our region, homeowners are experiencing canceled policies, dramatic premium increases, delayed or derailed real estate transactions and this erodess consumer confidence and it threatens housing stability. Resilient communities retain insurabilities insurability. Vulnerable communities lose it. Consistent community level mitigation standards applied uniformly across a jurisdiction are what insurers look for when deciding whether to remain in or return to a market. Voluntary measures or fragmented requirements cannot achieve this at scale. Actions that make homes survivable to wildfire also make them insurable. R327 provides a needed baseline and sends a strong signal that Bend is committed to reducing loss potential. As losses decline and predictability increases in fireprone regions, insurance coverage will stabilize and become more affordable. R327 matters also because building codes and defensible space measures work. They are among the most effective tools available to protect homes and preserve neighborhoods. They significantly outperform peacemail insurer requirements, voluntary homeowner compliance, and neighborhood by neighborhood approaches. The most successful wildfire resilient communities in the nation are those who have achieved results through uniform building standards, not patchwork mitigation. As Oregon State Fire Marshall finalizes a model defensible space code available

for adoption in 2026, adopting 327 now will put Bend on a very clear proactive path toward comprehensive wildfire resilience at community scale. In summary, adopting R327 for new residential construction is an important first step that Ben needs to take with respect to improving our community's wildfire resiliency. It is cost-effective, evidence-based, and aligned with our community values and growth trajectory. Its adoption will signal that Bend is committed to building a future for residents that is safer, more resilient, more insurable, and economically stable. We respectfully ask again you and council to expedite its review and local adoption. And just to make things easy, uh we have included in your packet a copy of the ordinance uh that sisters has passed uh just in mid November before Thanksgiving. And we have also included in your packet the recommendation from the Dashup's uh planning uh department that will be presented later this week to the commission. So with that uh we're happy to answer any questions that you might have and again thank you for your time.

We have any questions we need to stick them being clarifying questions only to avoid this being like a work session.

I have one. Um so in the uh the code amendments uh one of the things it says is R327.1.2 notification um and it says where municipality adopts section R327 locally the m municipality shall notify the state of Oregon building codes division and identify the uh areas of the jurisdiction where the additional construction standards are required. Has there been any uh talk about that in terms of like where in bend would be all of Bend would it be along the edge? I I I was just wonder because that's part of the adoption of this is the identif very excellent point. um by virtue of the local local process, local adoption, the city of Ben would have to identify where the code applies. Um with respect to experts that we know of, um the recommendation would be that it would apply to all of Bend. And here's why. Wildfire, we have to understand there's wildfire risk and there's conflration risk. And I point that out because the LA fires that happened in January, the homes that burned in those fires, they were not at high risk for wildfire. According to to uh totality, those homes were at high risk for confilration. So the confilration risk was significant. Um those homes burned because of density. um close proximity, not being hardened, lack of defensible space, and so forth. Bend ranks number

11 in the nation for wildfire risk in terms of the number of homes exposed to moderate and high wildfire risk. Our total reconstruction value based uh determined by cotality is 15.3 billion. It's not an insignificant sum. If wildfire comes from the forest and jumps into Bend, our homes in the downtown area, they're close. They're not hardened. We can easily turn in that that wild fire could easily turn into a conflration fire. once it turns into an urban fire, um it's just much much harder for it just becomes overwhelming. So, I think Lana and I have done enough wildfire risk assessments over the last year um that we've we have not come across a home yet that does not seem need some type of mitigation. Thank you. Excellent question. Could you define conflration that what exactly you're referring to in this context for conflration?

A conflration is um is a structure a structure to structure uh fire and so you can get this domino effect. Um if I can share my screen once again I can show you a picture of what I mean. Let's see. I need to escape out of this. Escape out of this. Oops. Uh this is a photograph of uh uh Boulder, Colorado. This is what happens during a confilgration where the fuel on our properties um the most significant fuel that we have on our properties, it's our homes. So, so if if you take wildfire from confflration, wildfire may be somewhere where it's the wild area and it starts up in the woods, the forest or open spaces, but the conflration may not be near the wildfire, but they can burn like this,

right? Because of embers like in Santa Rosa where I used to live, it jumped way. Yeah. It's just crazy. Well, these were basically grass fires that hit the neighborhood and then the fencing from house to house to house to house just created wicks and the and the whole neighborhood went up.

So, when we're inspecting as a city with our deputy fire marshal in charge of that and you're out there helping with the volunteer thing, then this is a situation where a fire could start in the city nowhere near the woods, nowhere near the forest, but it's logs piled up in the back or a fence or something and then it starts. So there's really kind of two two definitions. Um a more specific question is uh from listening to some of these things I understand that the state thing has done a lot of work which will help the cities not have to do that much building work but the town houses are still being looked at. Is that correct that there's still a need to see how that 327 does or does not relate to town homes. Is that I don't know that detail is I don't know that detail right now.

Okay. Well, that's just something to think about as staff. It certainly should apply to those. It should be everybody that's building, right? There is a there is a provision um that's included in the document that does refer to town homes. Um and the recommendation would be that the roofing material in town homes would be uh better than perhaps what's standard or called for now. So 327 is specific to the the home the home hardening, right?

Yes. And then Lon mentioned uh defensible space and evacuation. What's the is there any further legislation coming from or code coming from the state on on of those second two?

Yes. So so R327 applies only to new residential construction. Um the Oregon State Fire Marshall in a separate effort um based on uh law is in the process of developing the Oregon Defensible Space Code. They've had their first meeting. They'll have a meeting uh next week or uh or two weeks from now uh second meeting, third meeting in January and they hope to at that point in time prepare the final recommendation for the Oregon State Fire Marshall Office to approve and then uh once that is approved, they're targeting for um early 2026 um such that it can be adopted before fire season. So that like this will basically be boilerplate for municipalities to opt in

for new construction. That is my understanding. And if you could clarify on the defensible space because we have Craig let's right behind Robin there and he's the one that helped put the sisters project together and if I got it the fire marshall office, state fire marshall office been told by the legislature to do a defensible space code. Yes. But to follow the international wooi, you know, wildland urban interface code. Yes. Which is good, but does not include fences. And we get asked fences all the time. We see it all the time. Fences, fences, fences. So could you or Craig just mention is there a provision in the new one with sisters that has the fences covered?

Yeah, we were just looking at the draft and there there is a recommendation in there for a 5 foot firefree space around the structure. attachments which would include combustible fencing. Yeah. So when we get a draft from the state again which does some of our basic work we could add in the sisters approach for the defenseful space fences. Okay. Just you can get slap yeah you can add stuff to it. It's the baseline code that you would adopt as a model.

Thank you. With respect to R327, there are some exemptions and one of the things that is exempt um would be low uh profile decks which could be cedar decks. Um it's interesting that they are exempted. Um for decks that are greater than I think it was 30 in off of the ground um or 36 inches off the of the ground, they are required to be screened. um any deck that is 4 feet uh or or less above the ground should be screened. So that might be something uh else you know that's just addressed by a subsequent effort or something but at this point in time R27 is shelf ready you adopt it uh as a whole you can't pick and choose uh what components of that code you adopt it needs to be adopted um in whole and uh you need to decide upon the area for which it would apply.

Why does it need to be adopted in whole uh according to the that that's how the code was written? So at the state level at the state level building and codes division requires its full adoption and whole as a whole. Um are there any rec is there anything in pre27 to address um older older homes existing

existing homes? Um, no. That's actually what they took out of R327. So, it it will not address retrofits to existing homes or remodeling um roof replacement and things like that. Um, we recognize um that we need to there there are two um uh subsets of homes that we need to address. There's new homes. We'd like to see that they are built hardened. Um existing homes need to be retrofitted. That's something else that we need to address separate a separate um separate effort

with the existing homes. That's why defensibility is so important because that's the best defense for a older home that may or may not be home hardened. So if you if you do a good job of defensible space around it then that greatly mitigates the risk of that home igniting. So so that's why we would I mean one step at a time. This is very very important. But then we've got the defensible space issue to to pursue as well.

The so I'm kind of curious on the defensible space um with denser housing. How is that is a defensible space is referring to area around the building or distance between the buildings or so there's typically depends on the size of the property but you look at it from a zero to 5 foot perspective from the house or from any structure

and that theoretically wouldn't have a bit of fuel in it. It all be hardscape and non flammable. If the propertyy's big enough, then you look at the 5 to 30 foot zone to see what is there and make sure the ladder fuels, you know, are are eliminated that that, you know, bush can't catch a tree which can't catch the, you know, type of thing. So, you look at that space and then again, if it's a large property, you go from 30 ft out to 100 ft or the property line. Really large properties, it goes way beyond that. But in the example that you're talking about, they may only have a 0 to 5 ft zone or 20 ft at most. And it's, you know, you're dealing with a, if a house goes up next to it, the radiant heat can be a real issue, the kind of flagration we were talking about. So, at a minimum, you want to make sure like fencing, which most of them have, have metal gates so you don't have wood running right to each house. So, we talk a lot about putting metal gates in. And then you also want to make real, you know, darn sure that you don't have combustible uh materials in that 0 to 5 foot zone. So it's, you know, it's situational. Um, and if if a fire really goes up on a windy day with those dense that dense housing, you know, you want to have as much hardening in those homes as possible to, you know, reduce the spread. I'm curious. You were talking about the insurance and I think that's a lot of homeowners minds lately. Um, have you seen insurance insurers come back in and be willing to insure homes or

going the other way? I mean, as a result of implementing these measures, we haven't implemented them. We haven't. Oh, so we certainly hope that would be to say something. I think we're moving a little bit into out of clarifying questions.

Um, I guess one other point that uh that Lon and I would like to make is that if if you would like a wildfire risk assessment of your own home. Uh, Lan and I are both uh trained assessors. I was trained by the National Fire Protection Association as well as the city of Bend. And I've done over 115 wildfire risk assessments just this year, which is the same number that our um deputy fire marshal for wildfire preparedness did all of last year, Melissa Steel. She's wonderful and excellent to work with. So, Lon or I or Melissa Steel would be happy to come out to your properties um and assess your homes for wildfire risk um in in the future if you're interested and we can talk a little bit more one-on-one if if that interests you um or if you know.

Well, thank you. Great work. This group is unbelievable and only two years in existence and all you've done is just amazing with over 80 people involved. It's 80 communities. 80 communities. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I just for clarification for the commission and anyone else um watching to um wildfire resiliency is one of council's goals over the bienium. Um and they do have a work session they plan to have on that topic in June to consider updating codes related to wildfire resiliency, whether it's building codes, development codes. So, that will be a topic um coming up later this year for the council to consider. And the code presented to you this evening largely related to building code. So, it wouldn't necessarily be something the planning commission would see as an amendment to the development code, but there could be other aspects of the development code that might address some of the issues and solutions that were discussed this evening. I just don't want to set the misconception that the planning commission makes recommendations on building code amendments. That's just so we know um your perview is the development code. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Okay. Next, we're going to move into a legislative public hearing for PLEX 2025 50591. And I believe we have Austin, Damian, and Lori. I'll also say I'm officially opening the hearing for this legislative items. Right. Good evening, planning commissioners. Uh, for the record, my name is Damen Sernick. I'm a senior planner with the city's growth management division, and I will let my colleague introduce himself.

My name is Austin Shiggy. I'm a senior project engineer in the city's engineering department. We both have hard last names to pronounce. So easier that way. Yeah.

Uh so as the chair pointed out tonight we are here for a legislative public hearing on some proposed amendments to the Ben comprehensive plan. Uh these include adoption of a 2025 stormwater publicity plan and related changes to the text of uh the comprehensive plan. Uh your materials tonight include uh transmitt memo, the staff report, uh the actual storm water publicity plan, and then the amendments to chapter eight of the comp plan, which is the public facilities and services chapter. You have a um version that shows the changes and track changes and those with changes accepted. The proposed stormwater PFP would replace our current uh 2014 uh stormwater PFP as appendix H of the comprehensive plan. And then the other changes before you are some conforming and updated amendments to the text of the uh storm drainage uh facilities and systems text in chapter 8 along with uh a number of revisions to the policies uh in chapter 8. And uh there are no proposed other proposed changes to the the Ben development code uh or map changes uh before you this evening. Uh I'll touch on this slide briefly because I know this is maybe the less least exciting part of the uh presentations on legislative amendments. Uh we have a number of applicable criteria that are listed in the staff report which are part of your materials tonight. Uh the key pieces I wanted to highlight include uh statewide planning goal 11 which is one of the 19 statewide planning goals. This is the public um uh services and facilities goal along with its implementing rule which is Oregon admin Oregon administrative rules chapter 660 division 11.

Uh the uh one of the council's goals for the 2025 2027 bianium uh was completing a stormwater master plan. Uh that's a project that Austin will tell you more about shortly. Uh that itself is an engineering document that went through an extensive process to evaluate the city's stormwater systems uh evaluate their condition and develop a list of projects uh to complete through our capital improvement program. All that work uh informed the development of the public facility plan to the public facility plan. I wanted to highlight again that um this is required by one of the statewide planning goals go 11 and it also outlines on the slide here the the components of a public sity plan. Um this is intended to be a component of the comprehensive plan. So, uh, something simpler and, um, more of a summary of a lot of the information you might see in an more engineering heavy document, but it includes an inventory of all the city's infrastructure. Um unlike other our other other systems that are more like pipe pump station reservoir uh focused, our stormwater system includes uh some existing outfalls to the chute river uh but also a number of improvements that you've probably seen in our city right away which include uh underground injection controls. uh the PFP identifies those kind of needed improvements that going to be needed uh over the next 20 years and presents those in a uh kind of a short capital improvement program uh for the first 5 years and then for the next six to 20. Uh one of the things that we also need to include in our PFP which is already included in our carpets of plan is a policy statement about who the uh utility is that serves the city of Bend. uh the city serves as the storm water utility, but there also cases that um where private infrastructure is developed on a site to capture storm

water in things like landscape areas or or retention ponds. I should stress that the improvements that we're talking about tonight in the PFP are those that you would likely see uh in the city streets threats of way. Uh so as I mentioned, the PFP is uh intended to be a support document to the government's plan. Um what's before you would place our current plan is appendix H. Uh but it also provides a factual base for the city's ongoing uh water quality and store water management program. And um as I outlined at the staff report we did go through to make sure that we've addressed all the uh administrative rule requirements for a public study plan uh for stor. And at this point I'm going to turn the presentation over to Austin.

Thanks Damian. Um so yeah I uh I won't bore you all at length of the long storm water master planning presentation but just as a reminder um we have a very dispersed storm water system in the city of Ben primarily relying on dry wells uh and infiltration. Um but sorry I'll skip back a slide. Um oh there we go there. Sorry about that.

Um no problem. Um but we do have a number of outfalls. I think we have 36 outfalls and that really uh manages the the core old bend central or bend uh historic districts into the river. Um we uh yeah that's really the point I was trying to get across. This first system next slide please. So, as Damian mentioned, uh the public facility plan and the proposed comprehensive plan amendments all stem from the master plan process that we reviewed a few weeks ago. Um but before adopting the storm water master plan, we took a a review of the comprehensive plan and an update to the PFP just to make sure that all of our uh comp plan and our policies support all of the uh recommendations coming out of the master plan. And that's what we're bringing here tonight is um really since this was last updated in 2014. Um so there was uh some some language that you know is no longer applicable to the way we manage storm water. Some that just needed some updates, some asset numbers and and uh permitting language. and then um some other codes that are no longer necessary or covered in other areas of our policies that um we felt best uh you know removed from the storm water section. So uh next slide please. So, as a reminder, uh the main purpose of the storm water master plan was to get an update of the 2014 storm water master plan, primarily looking to identify, uh what priority issues we have to set a new list of priority projects. Uh and we also took a look at a few policy areas, that being climate change, drainage and density, and level of service. uh those don't uh apply to the public facility plan that we're talking about tonight uh but will be a part of the storm water master plan that

this public facility plan supports. Next slide. Uh as a reminder out of the master plan uh we we defined a series of projects. The larger projects we refer to as capital improvement projects. Those are uh the larger scale uh projects that typically the engineering department delivers. There were two primary categories. Those were those that supported drainage and those um that are water quality like particularly the outfall retrofit. So the the drainage issues go to protect groundwater um our our groundwater sources or municipal wells and private wells and the outfall retrofits look to provide water quality improvements before discharges to the river. It also generated a major maintenance list. These are smaller uh problems and issues that could be satisfied outside of a large capital project. And then two ongoing programs. Uh, one being the drill hole water quality retrofit program. These go to address drill holes that are in that two-year time of travel or within close proximity to drinking water wells. And then failing UIC's. These are just old underground injection controls. Sorry, that's the definition. Um, those are dry wells or drill holes that just aren't functioning very well and are are due for a rehab, but don't quite tip the scale for a capital project. Next slide. So, specific to the text changes tonight that we're talking about, um there there's two main sections of the comprehensive plan. One is the the main body text under the storm water uh drainage facilities and systems section and then the policy topics that are at the bottom of the plan. Um the text amendments that were main made to the main or that are proposed to the main text uh were pretty minor. It was

updating asset numbers, a little bit of uh permitting language updates, um the and um uh an update on our current utility fee and a description of uh what that serves. The policy updates that it we like I mentioned it was last updated in 2014. So there was really just a big cleanup effort. Um so we we made some out updates to outdated policies. We removed some policies that are no longer applicable and most of them are covered in other sections of our comprehensive plan. Uh and then there were a couple of new policies and that go to support some of the recommendations in the master plan in regards to climate change and drainage and density. Um so with that name um

before opening the hearing we do have a recommended motion uh on this slide u regarding the adoption of the um uh stormwater public city plan and the uh confirming amendments to chapter 8 to both the the text of the policies. Uh I think I'll let you cover the next steps real briefly.

Yeah. So, um assuming moving forward if we move forward with a recommendation um from the planning commission or we are scheduled to go to city council on the 17th of December. That'll be the first reading of these uh text amendments and adoption of the public facility plan. And then we would return on the 7th of January for the second reading of those amendments as well as the adoption of the storm water master plan. Before taking questions, I did want to mention that um in addition to the stormwater PFP, uh sometime early to mid next year, we'll be bringing forward a new uh collection system uh publicity plan as well. Actually, it's for the entire sewer system. Uh we have a uh an older public study plan for our water reclamation facility which is located on McGrath Road. Um, our current collection system was updated last in 2018. So, what will be coming to the planning commission early next year is a uh kind of combined publicity plan for our our wastewater collection and and treatment system. And with the completion of that document, all of our main infrastructure publicity plans will be updated.

Nice. And any questions? Anybody? Go ahead. Uh Damian, I had a question. In the storm water facilities plan, there was a tables and tables and tables and tables, and I just printed a random one because it was hundreds of pages, but the pipe shape is unknown, the pipe size is unknown, the material is not known, the installation date is unknown, the condition is unknown. So, how do we have a master plan with a prioritized list of projects if we don't know what we have out there?

Yeah. So, um I think there's over 80 miles of storm water pipe within our system. About seven miles of that actually drain to the river. So, a majority of those pipe segments that you're recognizing um are leading from catch basins to uh uh dry wells and and underground control facilities. So, you prioritize the ones that are going to the river. We did. Um so with our limited u you know capacity in doing the master plan we didn't have the resources to do a full CCTV we don't have designated CCTV for storm water. Could you state that acronym please? Close cap

closed captioning. So cameraing it's it's putting a camera within the pipe and and going through and

having someone review every single moment of every single pipe. Um and so what we did and and defined in the OAR is um assets of significance. Um and so what we defined that is are the pipes that are leading to the river. Um part of the storm water master plan does provide a recommendation. There's a segment in there called level of service and that's where we further define like 10 different categories of uh inspections, maintenance on all different types of assets. And one of the recommendations was to uh do more teething of our of our lines. Um so so specifically to satisfy the OARS, we were looking at the the pipes of significance being those that go to the river and we did uh TV all of those and that's when we were able to get, you know, real-time conditions assessments. The others we deemed less substantial. Um, but recommending moving forward to camera those and get more of a

So, we have a system in place to record that kind of information on new pipes because as a growing city, we've added a lot since the one I picked was Newport Avenue, west of the river. Just was a random page out of the listing. But the newer stuff, we do have all of that information into the database. So over time we'll be able to collect that information. That's right. I was also curious how the piping system to the river went from 14 miles to seven but the number of river outfalls went from 28 to 36.

Um yeah so based on the updated GIS so back in 2013 that's when we really started you know our GIS mapping and system. So, I can't necessarily speak to the accuracy of the 14 mi, but based on our assessments of our current updated database, that's what we found leading to the river. Um, a lot of these projects, similar to like the uh the uh Newport project, a a priority of these storm water projects is to limit water that does drain to the river. So there are efforts to um take take that water and infiltrate it um to kind of that dispersed more mimicking the natural drainage and and one limiting the burden to try to treat that water before discharging to surface water. And as a reminder there's there's two different permits that we have the municipal separate storm water system the MS4 and the WPCF that's the water pollution control facility. So those have different requirements as far as what level of treatment needs to happen. Um and as you would imagine surface water discharge is much more expensive, much higher level of treatment. So by all means that we can when we can get the infiltration, we're trying to take water off of the outfall discharges and and get that water into the ground.

And Austin, could just briefly could you uh just touch on the the two permits? Are they both state permits or is one a federal and one a state? So they boil down from the federal level. So it's the national pollution discharge elimination system um which then gets passed on from the EPA to the department of environmental quality to the Oregon DEEQ and they are the ones that in administer both of those permits but they both stem from federal programs down to a state level. Okay. Just one other question. There were a couple of interesting maps that showed um very Christmy

dry wells and drill holes and I don't know how this is only the dry wells that are on public over 6,000 land. Right. Yep. So ones that are in parking lots and things like that on private property aren't even on this map.

That's correct. So, we have a WPCF permit and that um cataloges and regulates all of our city- owned ones, but there uh is a whole separate process for private UIC's. Um so there's a it's called rule authorization rule authorization. Um so if they meet the basic criteria with the state um they go into storm water maintenance agreements with the cities and that's how we oversee that the maintenance and things are happening to an appropriate level. But those actually get uh permitted directly from the state on private property. And did I read that there were no new dry wells since 2012?

No. Um maybe that's drill holes. I would imagine that'd be drill holes. And so yeah, his historically the drill holes, the way they managed it, it was like an 8 in drilled casing down where they just,

you know, put a catch base in right on top of it. So there's no pre-treatment a lot of those. And and that goes to one of the programmatic solutions that we recommend is that drill hole retrofit program where it's either removing those drill holes that are in locations that are too close to our wells and things like that um or rehabbing them to get appropriate pre-treatment that does comply with the WPCF okay requirements. I was just looking at the list and lots of new developments had drill dry wells and so I was trying to figure out okay yeah UIC's both drill holes and dry wells question

the uh so following up uh Suzanne's question about cataloging and as the new development comes in 20 acres 200 acres and they're putting the private facilities in then you guys have that catalog as we're adding them into the system is that right because That map is really our public lands. Those are the public. Yeah. I we have um storm water maintenance agreements for all those private assets. Uh but they don't go into that database. Got it. The second question I have one more after that is rightaways. Are they eligible for the private developer to use if they are stuck somewhere and they need a piece of rightway to put that facility you showed up on the map or on the screen?

Yeah, that is an interesting question. So that is really the main topic that was looked at under one of those policy discussions under drainage and density. Um so what we did there was uh the first thing we did is we took a look at what our existing code allows. Um and we do technically in some cases allow that. Um but that's a conversation that's recommended to continue. Um so in the appendix of the storm water master plan there's a very robust we call it a white paper um that talks about uh our existing codes um challenges with drainage and density what we're seeing on these smaller lots especially those that have been you know massgraded infiltration isn't there anymore um and just the infeasibility on certain lot sizes to try to get that uh lot by lot containment

and and and the developer could then talk with staff and kind of claim a hardship say hey could I use some of that right away if they need it. Is that correct? If it's not resolved yet,

that's the conversation that's going to continue. So, with the water services department, um we want to further that discussion and look at, you know, coming up with like more appropriate subdivision level solutions. Um and now you start looking at well there's a difference between private draining on a combined private or p private draining on public or p private and public draining together. It's a whole dogs and cats living together kind of a conversation. So it it quickly becomes very convoluted. Um and and we want to make sure that um you know what what we're allowing is is going to be something that works. Um you know we have a lot of response right now of dealing with drainage that doesn't work. So our staff is burdened by going out and dealing with erosion and flooding nuisance problems. So we want to make sure that the development code allows for things that are going to function as a greater whole. But it's a large conversation to have. Um so what the master plan did is really just set the table uh to continue those conversations in hopes that we can you know progress forward with the right amount of you know input from all parties uh and then look at some potential future

last question then I don't think there's any statistics is there any research because the discussion you had last time about more of a global approach in a neighborhood instead of everybody having a little rain garden in their front thing. I think I've read over time from different journals and different professions that the rain gardens fail so fast they get silted up and they're not used. Is there any statistics on are they working, not working, they got to be done certain way? Anything qualitative or quantitative that you mean just like well when we tell somebody in their yard to make sure they swale yard anything that they're going to keep it on their yard and then you go by a year later it's silted up. It's full, you know, it's it's not doing what it's supposed to do.

It totally depends. I mean, it it depends on what the underlying geology like. If you're on the far east side, we find fantastic infiltration over there. If you're on the west side, there's spots that don't infiltrate at all. Um, what's the rest of your landscape look like? Are there are there silts in different things from different landscaping beds that could be compromising that? How often are they going in and maintaining that vegetation? Um, what type of vegetation is in there? Did was this like a single lot developed or did did a developer come in and you know massgrade a 100 lots that's now compacted to structural soils? like I I I don't there's so many varying parts of that. But that's again the reason why having you know a subdivision level type approach that is dedicated to such you know a drainage concept it's easier to maintain and so one one lot instead of 50 small individuals facilities. Um

so yeah thank you. Of course. Thanks. Uh so we in the future then we wouldn't allow a subdivision to do mass grading and compaction without actually having the drainage the storm water drainage in place at the time of the development of the neighborhood. Is that what you're saying? Because we kind of are seeing that happening all over town still where there was topography and now there's not and there's just a big flat field where they're building on. So it makes sense that there would be no that the filtration would be much different when you had jumbled up lava rock and topography in the past.

Yeah. And that that's you know another good example of how the conversation gets challenging. So, I think we're looking at, you know, kind of a a multi-phased approach where it's we want to allow as many options for management as as possible to give the developer, whoever's building those opportunities, but at the same time, we want to make sure that those facilities being constructed are performing. So, it's kind of a two-fold approach and we've already made some um steps towards this is making sure these drainage facilities are working and continue to work and continue to maintain. So, that's probably more from like a regulatory perspective. Not to say that you can't do it anymore, but we're going to make sure it's working, you know, and we're going to, you know, do a little more due diligence to make sure and continue that uh, you know, proof. But also then what creates now a path of least resistance is probably more of a subdivision level type thing, you know. So it's it's not saying we're going to go one way or the other, one will or won't be allowed, but we're going to have more measures put into place to provide that reassurance that whatever is getting built is in the, you know, greatest performing interest.

I saw that the policy number 825 was exactly what John was asking about. If the devel if the storm water couldn't be uh it would be technically infeasible or would not support the plan development process, then you would go through a a some kind of formal agreement with either the city or a private party to get So that's what you're talking about.

Exactly. and and it and it it speaks to kind of like the tiers of our you know so you have we have our comprehensive plan which has these policies that then also move to the development code and in title 16 of our grading and drainage code which also reference our standard and specifications which also reference the central Oregon storm water manual. Um so here what we are trying to do is from a high level you know make sure that that high overarching umbrella supports all of those periodic steps and so there could be changes to development codes to title 16 to the standards and specifications as this conversation continues to evolve and so that's here the purpose tonight is to get updates to these specific policies so that we can continue to have those conversations potentially come back with other development code or or code changes is um but know that we're all you know in support from the top down as our plan allows

because I was worried that the plan development patterns that we were allowing things on one side that we were then having trouble with on the other side exactly and that's that's why the master plan that's kind of how we got to the stage of like let's let's try to document the existing process for drainage what is allowed what what does language actually say versus what is the practice? Um because we found a little bit of variance there where maybe we could be doing a little bit more of this but we're not necessarily putting into practice yet. What do we need to do to make sure everyone feels comfortable, you know, moving those out. So yeah.

Yeah. Well, I have kind of an informal question. Um, so last time in the work session, um, we talked about how much I love the fact that we live on basically just like a giant sponge that you can just like drill into and put all the water in there and it'll just seep and go away. Um, it seems it's I like how I I don't know. It's just kind of fascinating that like central Oregon is just like so uniquely uh designed to make that totally fine. Um, and I was interested if um, you have anything to say about like how that impacts our costs for our storm water drainage facilities like compared to like other cities.

Like do we spend more money or less money on managing our our storm water?

Um, it allows for us not to have um miles and miles of trunk mains. Like if you go over to Portland or Salem, you know, they have uh just like our our collection system or our water system, this massive network of of pipes and assets, and those are all things that need to be maintained. Um and they're expensive to install. Um then you start looking at, okay, what kind of soils do they have for us? You know, to put in a pipe here, you're usually chipping away at rock, which is very expensive to install. So there's a little bit of comparison there, but I think in general we're super fortunate to have that in most cases. Good infiltration, it it limits um you know the amount of pipe miles that we have that then need to be serviced and maintained that could clog or all the other issues that could you know arise from that. Um and um yeah, I think I think that's I think it's I'd say it's likely cheaper, you know, to to have a disperse system like that. Um, you're also clearing up right away for like other assets that you need. A lot of the challenges that we face is historic rightaway that we'd like to be 100 feet right now and it's 60 feet. So, you're literally trying to put 100 lbs of stuff in a 60 lb bag and it's very challenging. Uh, and then trying to go through and retrofit these neighborhoods. So having that infiltration, I think not only from the cost of installing and maintaining and hopefully not having to replace, you know, hundreds of miles of pipe. Um it also just it's more more options what you can do with it.

Nathan, we do projects in my company in both Portland area and here and we would much rather put in a dry well. Okay. then do any of the Is it like a order of magnitude less expensive or is it like

Well, Austin made a good point that it's expensive. The initial construction is more expensive because you have to blast generally or you're chipping away at rock slowly but surely, but it's just the cost of the amount of piping that we're putting in. And then it also takes away land from the project. Um, so you're losing lots to storm water ponds and things like that. Um, cuz generally you have to do detention over there at some level and that's their treatment practice. So it's just it we we prefer dropbox. We're very fortunate to have the option. Yeah.

Okay. I have another fun question. Um, so one of the the common things that I've like seen from like various different capital projects that happen around town, it's like you'll you'll go into you'll you'll tear up a street, right? And you'll be like, I think I know what utilities are here. I think I know where all the pipes are and what they look like. You you look at it and it's just like nothing like you expect, right? This is like a really common thing that happens when you're doing improvement projects. Um, when you were like sneaking the CCTV down all the different drains, did you find anything fun or interesting?

Throw a bat in there. You're on the record. Yeah, we have we have found unique locations for people to put their assets directly through ours. the most interesting ones. I see. Um yeah, there's a few cases of that where, you know, they they'll bore and just bore right through our storm drain. And oh, there it is. Um but for the most part, it's it's old deteriorating um corrugated metal pipe that's got a bunch of holes in it and it's ready ready to be replaced. Yeah. Yeah. But that was the funnest one. You have to ask him afterwards.

No pouches, no mattresses, none of that. The pipes aren't that big. Most of them are, you know, 8 to 12 inches. So, yeah, they can only get so creative with what they put in them. Before opening the hearing, I did want to make uh two quick notes. Um, we have not received any written comments as of 5:00 this evening. Um, all the materials that we have in the record, including the stormwater master plan and all its appendices are also available through city view. So, somebody could go to our City View portal and access all those documents with a followup address. Great. Um, any more questions before we go into public testimony?

Well, I keep a comment. I I actually thought it was pretty interesting reading. Oh, great. Thanks for reading it. Well, okay. I admit I didn't read all like 500 pages, but understanding I mean, I thought it was fascinating to see like the different geologies like obser being I didn't realize that was basalt versus the tough versus the uh the newer volcanic and I I just I thought it was kind of interesting and I liked I I appreciated that you were prioritizing the discharge into the river um right

that clearly has the vastest impact um into our environment and I um also appreciate that notice that the Franklin and Greenwood underpasses are at the top of the list. Thank you. Um but yeah, thank thanks for um I I thought it was honestly pretty thorough. I was curious do if um on the private developments if any of those facilities that they're putting in eventually transition to city ownership.

That's part of the conversation. Um and especially in you know potentially some key areas you know a major one of interest is like the Ben central district you know trying to uh redevelop or the infill type things trying to provide opportunities where maybe it's not infeasible. Um but yeah that's definitely a major part of the conversation is uh publiclyowned infrastructure that would manage private water runoff. Okay. Any more questions? Okay. Um, next is public testimony and we don't have any attendees online and it looks like we have no attendees here in person. Um,

Russ wants to make a comment and I was asking her if she um, okay, so I will go ahead and move on to the next, which is staff comments, which I'm assuming you have no comments or public testimony. Not here. All right. Next, we'll go ahead and close the public testimony, the hearing, and move into deliberation. I like reading about the stuff I read for work, so I enjoyed it. I think a lot of good work is, as you mentioned, it's at the confl, but there's a whole bunch of technical documents that feed into it, and sounds like a good solid base. We've learned a lot in 10 years. Yeah,

I I was impressed that there actually is a catalog of all of the I mean even if even if we know there's actually a catalog of like we know there's a pipe there but think there's a pipe there thousands of of little pieces of infrastructure and I don't know I was actually pretty impressed by how comprehensive it was. Um and it seems I mean it seems to me well thought out and you know have any issues with it at all. I I liked it.

I really appreciate that we're actually doing planning that right, you know, we don't do plans and they sit on a shelf, but we have planning and we're we're updating and modifi modernizing uh and using new technologies to improve our information. And so uh yeah, I guess every 10 years or whatever that 11 years is about. That's a long time in Ben's development history in this particular window. So good job. Iterative improvement really is the best. I agree.

I'd just like to add again um great work. Um, it's nice to know that we're in excellent hands with all the thoughtfulness that you really give dayto-day. So, thank you. Thanks. And we also want to thank the person that has to interpret all the acronyms that we have. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the first like three pages of the report. All the acronyms about speech. Okay. Anybody else or anybody like to make a motion? I'll make a motion. I move. Please use the motion on the screen. You could Oh, is it different than the one on the page? Okay.

Okay. Uh I move to recommend approval of PL text 2025. Thank you. Uh 91 amendments to the Ben comprehensive plan, including one adoption of a 2025 storm water public facility plan. Thank you for not saying PFP. uh as the goal 11 public facility plan for storm water and replacing the 2014 storm water public facility plan as appendix H to the Bend comprehensive plan and two adoption of conforming amendments to the text of chapter 8 of the comprehensive plan public facilities and services to update the storm drainage facilities and systems section and policies allowing for minor corrections or clarifications from staff. I don't know that there were any of those, but

second. Okay, all those in favor. All those opposed. Okay, vote move. Great job. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much. You all very much. And do we need someone to be at? Oh, yes. We need to nominate someone. Sean and I are going to be there that night anyway. Actually, I have an update for you on that. So, before you decide who So, this will also be going to council on December 17th of the public hearing. So, the applicants of the union master plan have asked to pull that item from the council's agenda. So, you might not otherwise be there that evening, but it's already on your calendar.

Is it official that they pulled it or we're waiting? So, the council's not going to deliberate on it then at all. So, we don't need to. So, that leaves the table open for who might for the storm water master storm water flowing in. I heard people saying they really enjoyed reading about it.

I heard Erin wants to go out and inventory them in the field. Probably in there. I can't that evening actually. I have an appointment. I have not gone I've not presented to the city council before. So I don't really want to do it alone, but someone will go with me. Be available for questions. It's not quadition. So if you just want to recommend it, page 377. What was on me? Be a really good because they're really nice. It'll be fine.

They just if they ask you anything, they just ask what we talked about and then give it back to them. Right. Here it is. Look at your number and be like shaking the first time I did it. Yeah. And don't forget they don't have time for a lot of blank condition dialogue. They don't have time.

Okay. Unless we are Do I need to find anything for you guys? Yeah, we'll uh prepare an order from the planning commission that I'll send out to you hopefully tomorrow morning to ask for your signature. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you for the geology map. I love that's a good one. We just we actually just took some pores of South AR view to try to the south drainage project. We didn't find what we were hoping. Oh, it's it's tough geology up there, but super interesting.

Okay, next we'll move into approval of minutes from October 27th and November 10th. Does anybody have any comments or disagree with those? Nope. Okay. Next, we'll move into communications reports from planning commissioners. Start with

I I would just add because and Robin's still here, you know, this fire resiliency thing, as we know, is the topic of so many people we run into on the street and and from A to Z, not just homeowners, developers, builders, and by my part of the town, our part of town, northwest corner, we are still giving all the conflicts to HOAs saying one thing, the next HOA another. My neighborhood has no HOA but has CCRs. It's crazy. We need to get this going. And I think being planners in the planning commission, we need to push for a comprehensive approach, which I hope we're going to be doing. And this little nickel and dime stuff just doesn't work. And now that the state's doing some of our work, why not? If it's a base that we can work with and our building officials and planning officials can go through it. So, I'm all for a comprehensive approach sooner than later. I think Sisters was really doing it earlier because they're worried about fire season again. They don't want to wait beyond, you know, way into fire season. So I'm just hoping on my last TRA that we are going to be taking a comprehensive approach uh to the fire preparedness.

So uh I met with um I'll review uh just kind of a casual coffee conversation for an hour. Um Summit West I'm actually meeting uh with their board. This is regarding the liaison. um at West uh tomorrow night, but they were kind enough to do the informal survey. I circulated the um responses of 40 individuals and you know it covered things that one would you know it's back to the fire resiliency communities um and and and such. Um so I I hopefully you know that initiative for all of us will kind of go forward. Uh I I will make a a quick comment on the complete communities. I was a bit surprised that um on the west side that like you know northwest crossing there seemed to be a good number of neighborhood you know services, restaurants, coffee shops, etc., etc. That quite a few respondents did call that out hoping that that continued to be uh the case. And I thought it would be more an issue rail gate for the east side where

there's not a lot there's not a lot but yeah so there's do seem to be some citywide themes was my just quick takeaway from that. Yeah, I think there's public wants it, right? But the public doesn't build. That's the issue. Problem. Yeah. And I guess you met with Kristen from Central Oregon Land Watch, right?

Yes. Yeah, I met with her as well. Um, and actually I had a question about the because it was about neighborhood commercial. I know that Central Oregon Land Watch and YB's been looking into it and the city council mentioned they were going to look into it. So, um, I had some meetings like that, but I was just wondering if you could fill us in on whatever's happening. Sure. I I can do it now. Um, so council along with many of the staff, if you want to go ahead and answer, Russ. Yeah.

So, I can give you a couple couple quick updates. One on wildfire things and then also on this since I'm up here. So, the first one, wildfire. Um, we've got work sessions planned out for the next eight months, council. That's how much work is going on and we've gone through trying to schedule everything. So, we have a placeholder on uh June 24th for the conversations around wildfire and that's when we'll be asking questions to council around do you want to adopt this higher kind of building code standard? Do you want to do anything with the development code? So, those conversations are being developed on the neighborhood commercial. There is going to be a work session on January 14th.

Um that basically is going to ask C we're going to get direction from council on three things. one, we're already having conversations at the state level about possibly amending that that Senate bill to provide clarification, especially around plan master plan communities. So, that's one one avenue we're looking at. The second is do they want us to look at any development code updates or possibility of develop development code updates, which would be something the planning commission would be involved in if they direct us through that. The third leg of that is they want to look at incentives to see if there's anything that the council can do through incentive programs to try to get markets and or some you know if they want to target incentives to provide some type of service or retail into those areas. So there was a question that a neighbor had and they they were going if if uh Eastston gave up so to speak their commercial because this residential developer came in and then in the paper it said that we the city were helping that residential developer do affordable housing. But did economic developer anybody get a chance to get at him and say you could do both. Let's not give up one for the other.

I mean you were working with them to make it affordable. I get that. That's cool. And there was some really good incentives, but in the early part of losing the commercial, could we have negotiated and pushed them a little more? That there was, you know, we have affordable housing funds that people have the opportunity to submit applications to. The affordable housing committee looked at that. They provided recommendations and I believe I forgot it was either at East or Patrol. So, there were some funds that were awarded to one of those groups. Um, so that and those are they can only be used for affordable housing only for affordable housing and only affordable housing can go in these areas and they're still those are city funds. So we could change our there were city funds that were granted through change our criteria if in theory or there's discretion on how those wards are how those funds are distributed.

Well something not to get in the discussion now but the think is if we're going to give you these funds Mr. and M developer you got to put commercial on the bottom in the areas that we all think will work. I mean Eastston is a home run for commercial. It's just waiting for it and we're going to give it up. So, I mean, I'd say I'll give you 10 bucks of extra grant or assistance, but you got to put something at the ground at least to get some

totally and those are things that we can explore. There's there's also things that come with affordable housing funds and conditions on how affordable housing projects are done and the funding stacks and what they can and can't be used for. So, there's a lot of different things and that's what we want to get direction from council. How many different things do you want us to look at in in that world? So Russ, uh, going back to the firewise, um, I don't know how to ask it anymore diplomatically, and it's not meant to be argumentative, but I'm I'm a bit, um, disappointed that it's not until June of 2026. I wrote a letter. I I'd forgotten it. In January of this year, immediately after the LA fires to planning commission, planning staff, city council, very respectful, you know, asking that this be um elevated. Um and I also in doing a little homework sister's adoption R327 they had begun the work back in January. It was goal number one very specific what they wanted to do is harden homes defensible space etc. And you know that they had a meeting I forgot with city was council or planning commission in August to you know move move things forward get it actually implemented before year end and lo and behold September 1st they get it with the flat fires and then of course they adopt R 327. So anyway, I understand things are complex. You know, I'm a big fan of everyone I've met from city how diligent, hardworking they are, but what the heck?

No. Well, there's understand um and understand the importance of this of the conversation, the community, importance of the topic that we're talking about. I'm I am going to take just that's why I came tonight was wanted to listen to to this conversation. I'm going to take this back to the city manager and the mayor and see if they want to move things forward. Just know there's an ex an enormous volume of work that is going through the city right now related to council goals. This is one of

one of a very long list of things that we're trying to get accomplished and staff was just trying to schedule these conversations out in conjunction with council. I will take this back and see if there's any interest in moving things around and how and how that would happen just so the planning commission is aware. No guarantees, but I'm definitely going to take feedback. you put it to public vote, it'd be number one. Yeah. Same. But I understand if I No, more than happy to show you the list of other conversations going on at the same time.

One one other quick thing I've got while Robin's here and Russ is here is that um if we're the citizen involvement committee as well, and I think there's been some robust discussion with our group about trying to get that going. We're not saying let's set up the neighborhood districts to run the place, but also they're not doing a lot right now and it's hard to get them organized. So with this outreach effort, I think it's going to help strengthen it. And each one of the neighborhood groups districts has to have a land use chair on their board. That's part of the deal. I think it's our district thing we passed earlier in the year that if you have your if you're a neighborhood district, you have to have a land use chair on your board. Is that uh No, it's just not a city requirement.

All right. Well, the reason I brought it up is Robin, to her credit, has she's worked so hard on this, has also suggested once we get going with a comprehensive approach, having an emergency preparedness person on each board because she's the emergency preparedness lead for Summit West. And I thought, well, this makes sense because it lends a little more legitimacy to what's going on at the neighborhood level and would also funnel in more input to us when we get this to the group once we get the fire resiliency up on the top. So, just to suggest

totally Yeah. and neighborhood districts are completely voluntary boards and we have some that are extremely well-run and and well-maintained. I will look to my left as a demonstration of one and then we have some that are defunct and we can't even get a contact person too. So, we're trying to just kind of we're working with what we got. Yep. Totally totally understand what you're saying, but I mean the city's here to to help collaborate as we can with with those districts. Okay. Right. Thanks. Um no. Oh uh one thing we're getting a new uh fire marshall right fire marshal yes but staff since fire marsh here or yeah fire marshal recruitment we have one don't know starting

okay January I think yeah so my day job we've been uh trying to push uh a a building field change uh for the single point steering oh

concept and um uh we've met with the city a couple times and And seems like everyone's kind of on board except for uh the old fire marshal. The outgoing fire marshall was not. And so the new one is from apparently from like the Bay Area. So they're used to uh different building types. And actually uh similar to the project uh the the R327 uh the latest building code does allow local jurisdictions to adopt a version of the single point stair concept. It's just a very watered down version. It doesn't really do what it is supposed to do. So, single point stair,

a single point. So, if you build a multif family um building anything of of substance, you have or I guess multif family buildings, you have to have two stairs, okay, with a quarter in between. So, it dictates the layout of units and that's why you end up getting these long skinny units.

Um, and there's efficiencies if you think of how much of the floor plan or the floor plate is dedicated to circulation. Uh so there's a ratio there and developers are always trying to hit certain efficiency rating of rentable space and anyway so single point stair is think of kind of old school development or European development or anything like that where there's one stair that goes up stairwell and then a vestibule at each floor uh an elevator if needed and then something like four units per floor. Uh, and one of the things that uh, it seems really nuancy, but one of the benefits is, and I was talking with, uh, Corey from Landwatch, uh, who's really involved in the Ben Central District. That's like one of one of our S sales points, is you have a property of a certain size. There's no way you're going to get a building with two stairs and a corridor to fit. Um, and we've done some test fitting and existing smaller properties can develop something that otherwise couldn't be developed without a building code change.

And you know, it's it's it's one of those things where it just there's there's a lot of in the in the wind column there's there's a lot of aspects, you know, you could do more organic development. It's not like massive buildings where it's a 400 foot um space of a building. It's more like downtown kind of thing. So it' be smaller developments. It's like instead of being it like having to build an apartment jack sized like you could build a smaller one that's on like a smaller lot because you don't have to have these like multi-stairwell requirements. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. And there's just and it's this weird scale thing that once you had a development of a certain size then well if you're gonna go that that big then you might as well go this jumbo this jumbo

and and when you look at like how many floors uh you build before it's like per floor how much you're paying kind of thing. And uh anyways, it's the it's a it's a really cool building model that's been illegal in the United States for so many years and lots of old school developments are like that back in the day. But um but yeah and there was a big Pew Research Institute did like a 175 page study over all the and it's not it's it's not less safe than a building with two stairs. So you know we have sprinklers now we have HVAC that can pressurize vestibules so smoke doesn't get

in there and everything like that. So, uh, exciting for nerds. I enjoy storm water. I think you're volunteering on the right commission. Don't have anything. That's probably not the time to say that. I when I was in college, I was a resident adviser of the 24th floor of a 25 floor building and there was a fire and there was only a central stairway and

all the and the elevators in the central stairway were together and the smoke came up the stairway and nobody died amazingly. But um I got the building shut down and they couldn't figure out how to fix it. They'd actually had two 12story buildings, but to save money, they're like, "Hey, the scale is so big. Let's just put one on top of the other and we'll just make it." And and I was like, "You need to put stairwells on the outside so people would actually be in the air and you wouldn't be in the central where all where all the HVAC and everything." And so all the smoke was just sucked up and you're just walking down into this just deeper and deeper and deeper smoke and you don't know, right,

what's and there's no other choice. windows didn't open and there was a lock to get to the roof and no one had the key. So, they ended up um inflating the building because they could not figure out how to fix it. They had to take would had to take out every other floor to actually put the right kind of building in place. So, yeah. So, was the stair when you go up the stairs, could you go from the stair to a room without going through a a vestibule? It was all halls because it was dormatory. So, so you went out of the door into a hall with rooms, suites that went off of the hall. Anyway, it was a long time ago. So,

uh, but it was interesting that it was an architect here in Bend who I met later. He's in my Rotary club who was the architect that was hired to try and fix that before they imploded it. So, he shared with me the video when they blew up.

That was probably really satisfying. Uh the only thing I I met with the land use chair for the old Ben neighborhood. Uh I really would like to see us do a work session a round table with the land use chairs when we don't have anything else on our agenda. I think it would be really good for us to uh everybody's been really really appreciative that we're reaching out and and getting information and we get a better sense of kind of the community issues than um yeah than we would without that. So that's it. Nathan,

um I don't have anything to report. Um, I guess I do want to comment on the project wildfire uh presentation since, you know, we had it and it was in public comments, so we didn't really have deliberation. Um, I'm generally interested in adopting 9327. I'm aware that it's not a planning commission responsibility, but there's a lot of really interesting things about it. I think like I think it's interesting that it's something that Dashes County is looking at that Le Pine is interested interested in like having like regional consensus on how to move forward is pretty good. I don't know a lot about what's in R327 specifically. So I'm like more hesitant on talking about specifics. was particularly concerned about like how it affects different housing types like you mentioned town homes which is like like how how you can like tailor it for for different housing housing types I think is important but um if it works out well like it would save a lot of staff time right like because it's already it's already there right we can focus on all the other things that we're working on we can maybe fasttrack this and get it through um I don't know it'd be interesting I think the development code is going to need to go in conjunction with it because I was just I mean I I wasn't looking at too much but I know we have like uh and I forget what it's called but it's the development where you can essentially have an easement and you can build on your property line uh without raiding it. And so those are and and then the union master plan uh one of the things that they had in it was smaller side setbacks like three-foot side setbacks and I mean that didn't get approved but or they're pulling it but uh but yeah I'd be interested in like kind of going through the development code with that in mind because you don't want to do something

that then like flashes and and I feel like you know so that means Pauline needs to come communicate. Yeah, she has too much going on code. Um, but then also too that the defensible space and things like that, like I think that that'll come through. Yeah, I mean I think that Yeah, getting getting it all together and then doing it at once. I think hopefully before fire season. Yeah, I mean that would be ideal.

It's also the buildings take effect. So, um I also reached out to um the two neighborhood neighborhoods. Um Old Farm District was on it. They also sent out a survey and they actually sent me the results this afternoon. I only had the briefest chance to skim through them, but there were a lot of responses to rather open-ended questions, but um and they a lot of them ran the gamut, but the Lots and lots of people were asking in Old Farm for they want the commercial in the neighborhood. They're really um they're really upset that Northwest Crossing's getting it, the north end of town is getting it. Even even, you know, the Southwest side and um they're they're really upset that they're not getting it. That is probably the one thing I briefly noticed was the most common thing that people had in common. Um boy, yeah, they're they're well old farm definitely wants to participate. They're really glad that we're reaching out to them. Um Void Acres seems like they're just trying to get themselves organized though.

A lot of Yeah. Um, but that's fine. I mean, it was people seem to a couple another thing that I just kind of noticed just talking with people lately and it kind of came up in those comments also was um a lot of people were mentioning that they don't know how to give any input to the city. They don't feel like they have any input to the city and they've been asking me what's the process to give input on various things. They said, "Well, you know, you can come do public comment at the meeting." But the I don't think they're getting the word out and that there seems to be a bit of

do was your sense on general input to like city council or on development projects? Um development projects for sure. Okay. or codes or you know what whatever their issue was like they they just don't seem to think that they have a voice or that it can be heard and they don't know how to get it heard by you guys I guess and I was I was wondering what what how I could relate to them um their options for for commenting I mean I could follow up on that I'm just hearing this for the first time so I'm not prepared yeah I know

there are many yeah there are many opportunities whether it's I If they're not within the radius of a development project, there are on-site signs that are posted alerting that there's a development proposal on the site. We send notices to the neighborhood districts when a project is within a district. And so we assume that information is then being spread to everybody in that neighborhood through that venue. Um well, it's two for two. It's free. And then I think you've noticed then once it's formally coming in, right? We don't do a notice on a pre pre-application. No, but they have to do a neighborhood. The developer has to even submit the a certain size or type they have to hold their own

which the problem is is that when the district sends it out they've only got a limited amount of people on their email list they blanket the whole area. I

I think one one thing sorry Erin one just comment on that um one thing I would encourage all seven of you to do is when you have this conversation is you have heard the the I'll call it the rigma role about the rules in a quasi judicial application many I was going to say a million many many times so you know how that works you know how those applications are have to be reviewed by the planning commission and council when you are involved in those discussions you don't have to give a presentation and say, "Here, watch my PowerPoint." But you've heard this enough that I think you were all pretty well equipped to be able to explain to folks who are asking sort of how the system works. Um, not just how it works, but some of the ideas behind the due process requirements to equip people to get their input in on applications in a way that is meaningful because that's we see that quite a bit. People will have thoughts or feelings about an application, but they don't really connect them to the rules that are in place and you you know how important that is. So um one thing I think the planning commission can do or as individual commissioners you can do in carrying out that I we're sort of moving away from the word citizen and government for a few reasons but as carrying out that citizen involvement function is when you are engaging with people as individuals you don't have to get on a soap box but you can provide some grounding and education that will help their input

carry more weight and be more meaningful. So, I think that's something you can all do as individuals when you get those questions because you see these processes and I I think that's one of the best ways to get good information on how things work and should work to people you encounter. Um, I mean, we we go through the the the quasi judicial architecture before a quasi judicial proceeding because it matters and it's what state law requires and the code requires. But I think to the extent you can take those concepts and inform people who have those questions, they'll be better off to get their input in in a way that um can actually be considered by you or by the council. So that that's one that's one thing that I would love to see more of when you get a chance. Not not saying you don't, but

we also every time in front of neighbor districts that are active, it's like stay your best resource is your neighborhood district because we send notice of everything going on to the neighborhood districts regardless of the required 500 foot or whatever that distance is. So, we're trying to use them as the as that critical link to the neighborhood because we

and one just one comment on this. I was looking I think this is gosh is this southwest neighborhood district? I can't remember the the spreadsheet that was attached. I I'm not sure if this is from Bob or from Aaron, but I'm looking through some of the the questions, the answers to the question, what input do you have regarding the city's land use policies that you wish to convey to the planning commission? Please provide your input below. And there's all sorts of input. Um some of it contradictory because people have different opinions. Some people like keep it dense. Some people are like I don't like density. All fine. Um inexpected, but somebody said, and I it's anonymous, so I don't think I'm calling anybody out, but this says need to be more independent of city staff and council as it relates to planning and notice. Each of you need to do away with the advice not to have ex part communications. And it says some other things. And then like and that's a you know that's a that's a that's a legal requirement in the system. So this is not to call that out but there is so many misconceptions people here I mean and you know where this comes from. So when you when you have those opportunities to have those discussions I would encourage you to take them.

One of the things that's been very interesting about this experience is people seem to have the impression that we can just not like a project and say it right. You can definitely not like a project. You can you can not like a project. Yes. Although yes. Well, maybe. So, the other the quick question on this and not to ask so much detail now, but Renee, do you have any statistics on how a neighbor district when they get all the emails in the neighborhood, are they getting 20% of the homes or 30%? Now, we've been trying Robin, uh, I think you guys on the board have got what, 400 and some emails.

So, we have um grown um from 600 and some emails to more more like 750 to 800 um by virtue of our outreach efforts. But that's still I would say a small drop in the bucket in terms of the number of housing units that we have in our neighborhood or the number of residents that we have in our community. We have 3600 housing units

um in the Summit West neighborhood district. I wish that we had more individuals who were signed up for our email newsletters because we send them out um every Monday, you know, once a week or every two weeks, something like that. That's our target. Um but uh it's a tough one. It's very hard to um we do a lot of recruiting. We do monthly coffee and conversation events. We're we're out there doing wildfire risk assessments and people are very interested in that. They hear about that, then they sign up. Um, uh, so it's a small proportion of that whole,

but we don't have everybody when you consider 3600 housing units, you know, double that. We should be, you know, our email distribution list should be probably Yeah. in the thousands. Mhm.

Not not a topic for tonight or maybe but you know whenever we have a an evening for broader discussion to strengthen the neighborhood districts maybe there is something the city uh could do to uh further um promote. I will say that my experience is I was involved at the summit west neighborhood district prior to coming on the plan commission and it was one of the neighborhood districts that wasn't that well organized. Um but early on the board you know Robin and others said we're not going to champion our personal views. We're going to take a neutral stance and only when we can back only when we have a like a formal ser survey that's statistically significant will be will we be advocates and I highlight that because I think some of the neighborhood districts and land use chairs got themselves in trouble

because they were viewed as zealots for their personal agenda and not being a representative and a conduit. do it. Um, yeah, it's Russ shakes his head. I was saying that never. Yeah. So, I I I think neighbor districts can be really effective. They should, but they they're doing themselves a disservice if they're not um doing it the right way. Yeah. Doing it the right way. Okay. Nay,

sure. Um, I have a few things. So, as I mentioned earlier, I was going to report out that the applicants of the union master plan asked to pull the item from council's agenda next week. So, I don't know when that will be rescheduled, but we'll renotice everybody who was due a notice for that once uh we do have a new hearing date. Breel, any idea what was behind that?

Yes. Well, if they make changes, does it come back to the planning commission? I think we'd have to see if they do. Yeah. Don't know. Haven't haven't met with them since that decision. Um so your meeting on December 22nd will be cancelled both due to its just proximity to holiday season and um we didn't have an item that needed to be scheduled. But we will have several items in January and February, including um Pauline will be back in January with the work session and a public hearing with very focused updates to the tree code um preservation standards based on council's direction from their October 22nd work session. So you'll see some focused amendments to the tree code in January. Um and then um John mentioned briefly, but this is John's last planning commission meeting. There is a gift there from city manager's office.

Appreciating you for your service. Thank you for this year of service. Um we are in the process of interviewing candidates to fill what will be the vacant position and that person should be appointed at council's December 17th meeting. So um look toward that and then also in January Ian will again give his highly acclaimed and yes much much loved training I think as well and out of town I think that's all I've had for now

I have nothing to report what's what's the deal prize fighting what's I had a trigger thumb Oh, I've been putting off for a long time. Decided it was going to interfere with my skiing. So, I think shoulder season very long. Yeah. Well, soon. Question. I I noticed um I think it was on a big code amendment that we did. Mhm. There was a table in there that had it was from 2014 and it had like the 16,000 houses we were homes we were supposed to build by 28.

And then I and I think when I read it that it was like 33,000 people 16,000 houses and like every place I looked now everybody's mentioning 33,000 and I'm wondering is that an old table? Is there a new one I should be looking at?

Yes. So that was in the findings the the findings to support the code amendments that you saw um in that big cleanup package of code amendments and that was referring to a 2016 report on housing needs analysis. Our growth management department as part of the growth plan which we briefly mentioned here uh will be conducting updated studies and analyses to come up with new numbers in much more detail um based on state regulations too to also detail out not how many units but also at what income levels we need those units and unit types. And so we will be getting updated data. It's just part of a much larger effort as we update the comprehensive plan.

So is that the that is the current that is that is the current one that the current most comprehensive numbers we have. Yes. Is that 2016? So it's 33,000 people 16,000. No 33,000. I don't sign that up. Well, that's the old so the 2016 that I've been arguing about this for years now on the planning commission that we need to update that because we grew so much faster than was anticipated when they did the 2016 housing needs analysis. Well, but the the state is requiring us to bring in new homes and that's where that 33 or 35,000 is coming from is as part of the system. So this I don't what

because the chart these are the preliminary numbers we got from from from the state it was 33,000 33,000 new new over the next 20 years. Yeah. So has that been now till 20 or is that picking up from 15 till now? Which that's the new law that was part of the new law that was you'll be getting more numbers on this as and the reason I I this I'm glad you brought this up because I brought this up almost a year ago and I think you guys are going to try and reach out to housing to come and explain where did the state come up with that number. You know, we don't have to do it tonight, but I mean my god, that's a mind-blowing number and I think the commissioner should be up to speed at where it came from, you know.

Yep. Yeah. Because I'm thinking but since we must have built like a fair amount of those 16,00 right yes yes but the need out out

I emailed you invite neighborhood I say everybody.