And now onto the invitation for Part 2 of the review and discussion of the Bend Development Code. It’s riveting reading. A real page turner. 6 out of 5 stars. But more importantly, it’s vital to how things get built here in Bend. Understanding this helps understand how to best combat NIMBY arguments and provides insights into how to support future housing development.

This next session will look at the first two chapters of Title 2 – Land Use Districts (https://bend.municipal.codes/BDC/2). This would be 2.0 – Land Use District Administration, and 2.1 – Residential Districts (UAR, RL, RS, RM-10, RM, RH). I know what you are thinking, and I have no idea how they come up with such riveting names either.

This is where things will really start to get real. We’ll be looking at setbacks, building heights, lot coverage, FAR, etc. In short, it’s what’s allowed and not allowed (and the exceptions for both) in Bend’s residential zones.  If you missed the first reading session, that’s ok, because we’ll almost certainly reference back to it now and then and you’ll get introduced to it that way.

Although I gave some pretty glowing reviews of the BDC earlier, I will admit that it’s not easy reading. It’s not difficult, but it is dry. Like really dry. But the reason for this group is to support one another as we slog through the thing and deepen our understanding of the document. And you may not believe me, but talking about it does make it much more interesting as you can start to dissect sections, and see how it builds on things to reach final design impacts on our city. To that end, I highly recommend reading through these two sections before the meeting. You’ll get a lot more out of it and we can get more into Q&A and discussions about specific sections. Also, if there are previous projects that raised specific questions or issues, please bring those to the meeting as well and we can take a deeper look at some of those.