The City Council recently amended the Bend City Code to no longer allow auto-dependent development in Convenience Commercial Zones.  For the Southeast part of town, there are a few undeveloped acres that will be affected by this change:

  • 15th and Reed Market, just North of the gas station
  • Brentwood, West of American Lane
  • 15th and SE Caldera
  • 2 lots on China Hat, NW of Knott

This will NOT affect the gas station planned for Murphy and Brosterhous as that project was already permitted prior to this decision.

Background:
Convenience Commercial Zone
There are approximately 87 acres of CC zoned land within the City’s Urban Growth Boundary. Approximately 50 of those acres are developed, and approximately 37 acres are vacant or “underdeveloped.” One of the Council’s 2023-2025 Environment and Climate Goals is to “develop new polices to support sustainable development including policies that are responsive to community concerns, such as the Tree Code, auto dependent uses in commercial zones and natural gas policy.”

The City’s Growth Plan, which will be created in 2025-2028, will include a community-wide strategy to identify and create new key destinations to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Considering the upcoming effort to support compact, pedestrian-friendly mixed used “complete communities,” during a September 4, 2024 work session, Council directed staff to limit the scope of this BDC amendment to prohibiting new auto-dependent uses in the CC Zone. A broader review of auto-dependent and auto-oriented uses throughout the city will occur with the Growth Plan work effort. The Council’s direction was clear that existing, lawfully established auto-dependent uses in the CC Zone will remain and will not be considered a nonconforming use.

Neighborhood Commercial Zone
There are five properties in the City limits that were zoned Neighborhood Commercial prior to the CN Zone District being eliminated from land use tables in the 2006 BDC update. Those five properties are the only CN zoned properties in the City. The CN Zone is not the same as Neighborhood Commercial Sites, which are subject to locational criteria and specific development standards in BDC 3.6.300.J.

The five CN-zoned properties are in the vicinity of the Old Town Neighborhood. The underlying Comprehensive Plan land use designation for each is Medium Density Residential (RM). Two of the five CN-zoned properties have a legally permitted whole-house short-term rental (STR) permit. Under the current BDC 3.6.500, STRs located within the CN Zone are processed as a Type I application (ministerial decision without public notice), are not subject to the 500-foot concentration limit between STRs or Vacation Home Rentals (VHRs) and are not limited to one per property.

At the September 4, 2024 Council work session, Council directed staff to amend the BDC to require CN zoned properties to go through the same STR review process and standards as the underlying Residential Land Use Designation. For the five CN zoned properties in the City, that would mean applying the STR process and standards for the RM zone. Under the applicable RM processes and standards, there would be a Type II administrative review process with public notice, the 500-foot concentration limit between STRs or VHRs would apply, and each property would be limited to one STR. Because of the significant number of STRs and VHRs in the vicinity of the five affected properties in the CN Zone, if the amendment to BDC 3.6.500 is adopted, it is unlikely that the three properties that currently do not have legally permitted STR units would be able to be developed or redeveloped with a STR in the future. The two existing permitted STRs could remain as legal nonconforming uses as long as that use remains current on licensing requirements and is not abandoned. If the subject permitted STR property transfers ownership, the new property owner will need to reapply for the STR permit.

All documents, presentations, decisions and maps can be found HERE