The future of Bend is happening now.

The City of Bend is beginning work that will guide our community’s growth now and for the next 20 to 50 years. LandWatch’s Cities & Towns team is and will be deeply involved with these efforts on the path ahead—and we’ll make sure our community knows the best times to make their voices heard along the way. 

Over just 32 days after it began, Oregon’s 2024 legislative session delivered a mixed bag for environmentally-minded housing and land use advocates. Here’s our take on what went well, what could’ve been better, and what we’ll be working on next.

Housing production bills have been front and center during Oregon’s 2024 legislative short session and we’ve heard an encouraging message from lawmakers that our advocacy matters. Proposed Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion provisions are being scaled back.

If you visited a produce stand in Central Oregon this past summer, you likely came across local vegetables, herbs, and seeds grown every year in Jefferson County.

LUBA decides in favor of LandWatch’s challenge to an urban growth boundary expansion. As Jefferson County is home to the most productive agricultural land in Central Oregon, LandWatch was concerned that the UGB expansion would permanently convert prime farmland away from agricultural use without any need to expand the UGB.