The Horizon
All the latest updates on our work defending rural lands, creating livable cities and towns and preserving wild lands and water throughout Central Oregon
Making Complete Communities Happen in Bend
Here are some exciting updates about how we’re helping make Complete Communities happen in our community, right now.
Skyline Forest: The Burning Question
Skyline Forest and Bend share a border within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) that is essential for managing wildfire risk to our communities.
Bend is ready for Middle Housing
There is a housing shortage across the country, driving up costs and limiting available housing options for residents in cities and towns nationwide. Bend is no exception. HB 2001 requires most cities in Oregon, including Bend, to allow more middle housing options within city limits.
What’s next for Southeast Bend?
Last week, the Bend City Council approved the Southeast Area Plan, which will guide development on 479 acres southeast of Bend’s current city limits.
New City Councilors, New Goals for Bend
Put plans into action! Tonight, four new Bend City Councilors will be sworn into office. In the November 2020 election, Bend residents voted in Melanie Kebler, Rita Schenkelberg, Anthony Broadman, and Megan Perkins to the council.
A Place to Call Home? Take Action Today on Housing
Like air to breathe and food to eat, shelter is a basic human need. Unfortunately, Central Oregon’s housing crisis has grown dire this year. People continue to move here, housing prices continue to rise, and many of our neighbors might not be able to stay.
Bend Code Update Could Provide More Flexibility for Housing
While it won’t solve our housing crisis, the proposed development code updates will provide more options for housing that makes efficient use of land, which ultimately allows us to protect the landscapes we love while making housing available for people across the income spectrum.
How land use can keep Oregonians safe from wildfires
As Oregon reels from destructive wildfires and oppressive smoke, we at Central Oregon LandWatch want to express our heartbreak and sympathy for the communities experiencing unfathomable loss.
A Win for Bend's Transportation Future!
Over the past two years, the 21-member Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) worked to develop a new Transportation System Plan (TSP) for the City of Bend, and LandWatch was there every step of the way advocating for a safer, more equitable and more sustainable transportation future.
Celebrating a huge win for the BCD Initiative!
After more than a decade of city planning and over two and a half years of community organizing, the vision for a vibrant, healthy, and inclusive Bend Central District is within reach!
Don't miss the big picture of the Bend core area plan
Bend’s population is exploding, and we need a strategy to accommodate the growth. one that utilizes underdeveloped parts of our city instead of sprawling onto our farms and forests. We need well-laid plans that prioritize efficient use of land and protect what we value most about living in Central Oregon.
Economist on the Core Area Plan for Bend: It Makes Fiscal Sense
The vision for a vibrant, healthy, and inclusive mixed-use neighborhood in the Bend Central District with safe connections between east and west Bend depends on the Core Area Plan to be funded through Tax Increment Financing (TIF). Steve Porter, an economist who served on the Urban Renewal Advisory Board, explains why TIF is the right tool to use from an economic perspective. This Guest Column was in The Bulletin on July 31st, 2020. For more on TIF, see our Frequently Asked Questions.
Thank you Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee!
After two years of work, the 21-member Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) recently held their final meeting. Thank you CTAC for your hard work and your commitment to creating a better future for transportation in Bend!
Environmentalists for Black Lives Matter
We believe that in preserving Central Oregon’s natural resources and livable communities, a just society for all people is more possible. A community cannot be livable when its Black residents are not safe. Central Oregon LandWatch stands in solidarity with those fighting to dismantle racism and to build a more equitable world.
This is why we need local farmers and ranchers
As you well know, we are experiencing a significant interruption in the systems that we may take for granted as COVID-19 spreads across the world. From an over-burdened medical system to the social contracts implicit in a smile, no stone is left unturned, including our food systems.
Don't let equity gaps in the BCD widen
Our community impact analysis found that residents of the Bend Central District's census tract are twice as likely to live in poverty as residents throughout Bend.
BCD Update
We've seen an incredible response from the helpers in our community as we face the threat of COVID-19 and its fallout together.
Legislative Recap & Plans to Reconvene to Address COVID-19
As frontline defenders of Central Oregon’s rural lands, water, and wildlife and as proponents of sustainable, attractive, prosperous communities, another of the arenas in which LandWatch actively engages is legislative advocacy. We track bills, conduct background research, work with partner organizations, meet with legislators, provide testimony, and participate in crafting legislation. We work to support and strengthen good bills and to oppose, defeat, limit, or mitigate bad bills.
Proposal for urban renewal in the Core Area of Bend
Things are moving quickly with the City of Bend's Core Area planning process, which aims to create an Urban Renewal District in the Bend Central District and surrounding areas by August of this year.
Here’s why we support passing Bend’s Transportation Bond
The Central Oregon Conservation Network – a group of 12 environmental advocacy organizations that work in our region – recently decided to support a GO Bond that will be on the ballot in May because it will diversify Bend’s transportation network.