REDMOND – Life, it’s said, is what happens while you’re making other plans. And that’s how it’s going in a broad swath of land east of Deschutes County-owned land east of Redmond, where businesses and developers already are expressing intense interest in buying some or all of the property, well before an effort to plan the area’s future is done.

City and county officials got an update on the situation at their regular joint meeting last Thursday. They heard, briefly, from principals in a loosely organized triumvirate of Hap Taylor & Sons, Brooks Resources and Eagle Crest, which raised a lot of eyebrows last month by announcing they were “exploring development opportunities” in the 2,000-acre area east of Redmond, going so far as to draw up a conceptual map of how it might be “master planned,” in development parlance.

The land in question is “Redmond’s future,” especially in terms of jobs, Mayor Alan Unger said, and all the parties involved are being invited to the first of likely several public meetings next month. In the meantime, county Commissioner Tom DeWolf stressed that the property is not listed for sale.

“You are in the process of deciding what goes into your urban growth boundary,” county Commissioner Dennis Luke told the city leaders, as well as designating up to 50 years of “urban reserve” area surrounding the city. “If this (land) doesn’t go inside the UGB, you’re not going to develop it.”

“We’ll be happy to sit down and talk,” Luke said, but “what happens to Redmond has to be Redmond’s lead. And I’m not sure we’re there yet.”

City Councilor Ric Nowak said he was ready to hear whatever Todd Taylor of Hap Taylor & Sons and Kirk Schueler, president of Brooks Resources (accompanied by Eagle Crest CEO Jerry Andres) wanted to tell the assemblage. But Luke warned against going too far, too fast.

“Are you ready to turn around your whole planning process 180 degrees?” he asked. “I don’t mind hearing a short presentation. This is a little bit early in the process.”

Taylor noted that his firm owns a 40-acre industrial parcel inside the city and began looking at other land to the south two years ago, but “decided it was too early for us.” Then there was the 125 acounty-owned acres within the city’s UGB, and a large chunk of Central Oregon Irrigation District land (a COID representative also was among the 40 or so on hand Thursday).

“We needed some land to expand the aggregate (storage) area outside our `hot’ (asphalt) plant,” Taylor said, so the firm “decided it would be worth our effort to look at the full (1,800-acre) piece of property.” That led to a letter to Steve Scott, the county’s real estate agent of record, which then was provided to the media, as a matter of public record.

‘Not trying to shortcut the system’

Unfortunately, Taylor said, some interpreted the letter as the company “trying to short-circuit the system. That was not our intent. We’re trying to follow the process.” He cited the need for a “shovel-ready site” for industry in the Redmond area, which does “not want to be a back-door community” to Bend.
And he noted that his company is building the new T-Mobile call center near Redmond’s airport.

Considering the size of the county-owned land east of Redmond, “we felt it was important to look at some partners,” Taylor said, to make as strong a proposal as possible, which is why they turned to Eagle Crest and Brooks Resources. Taylor responded to a question from Luke by saying “the intent is not to have a resort on the property.” Luke followed up pointing out that a resort is the only kind of large-scale development that could take place on the land, until and unless it comes into the city’s UGB.

“We’re not here to shortcut the system,” Taylor repeated. “We’re not trying to shove anything down anyone’s throats. We have an interest in that (land). Our interest is to do it on a basis you’ve asked us to do. What we’re looking for at this point is direction – where do we go from here?”

Schueler said Brooks Resources and the others involved “are master planners and developers,” who stress the public input in the process: “Three local, reputable companies that make a good fit for that land.”

“We understand that’s a 20- to 30-year project,” Schueler said. “We have the financial capability and mindset to deliver on a long-term plan.”

Unger said, “We all have questions. We could spend the rest of the day answering them.” A key one, he said, is “how does this fit into Redmond’s economic development plans?”

Soon, City Manager Jo Anne Sutherland let another cat out of the bag, at least a bit, when she noted that a door company – Tualatin-based Suburban Door, as it turns out – which operates a small facility in Redmond wants to move its entire manufacturing plant to about 30 county-owned acres, among 125 acres that are inside the urban growth boundary but outside the present city limits. The county discusses real estate matters, in general, in closed-door executive session, until a deal is struck.

But as for the larger issue, of the swath of land outside the UGB, Luke said, “From my standpoint, the city of Redmond has to decide where it wants to grow. There’s a lot of decisions you have to make before the county steps in.”

DeWolf stressed that the city has not taken any steps with its land, such as lot-line adjustments or partitions. But Sutherland and Redmond officials said DeWolf was mistaken, when he said he thought he’d heard them urge the county to “not respond in a positive fashion to people who express interest,” such as the door company.

Sutherland said, “We didn’t close the door on that offer,” but DeWolf expressed concern about dealing with different proposals in unequal ways. The city manager said she sees a big difference, at least in time frame and the ability to create more jobs fairly rapidly. “The council’s No. 1 goal is creating jobs in Redmond,” Sutherland said.

“The ball’s in Redmond’s court,” said city Councilor Joe Mansfield.

“That’s not entirely true,” Luke replied, noting as DeWolf did that the county believes if it puts property out for sale, “everybody gets a shot at it.”

On a related note, county Community Development Director George Read said population projections done so far cannot justify as much urban reserve land as the city is considering, even though it’s been reduced from the initial 5,300-acre figure to 4,300 acres. The state must agree that the acreage proposed for the urban reserve will be needed for future growth expected over a 50-year period.

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