Bend Planning Commissioners, Mayor Kebler and Councilors,

Regarding PLCPMA20220263

This particular parcel of land has bounced around between different plans for a long time. Bend desperately needs more housing, especially towards the affordable end of the spectrum. This is a significant amount of housing. We would like to see these new homes under construction as soon as possible.

One question that has come up about this area is the opportunity for commercial development. There are questions about zoning in Bend that this brings up, which we feel are important ones, but should not delay the construction of these homes. We hope that our city will take them under consideration as a separate matter:

Why isn't the current zoning flexible and adaptable enough to build homes now with the idea that they may have some commercial amenities added at a later date? Businesses depend on a critical mass of potential customers. Without the homes, the businesses aren't viable. What can we do to make our zoning and development code so that it's easy for someone to retrofit a business into an area that now has the population density to support it? Examples might include businesses like Midtown Market, or Donner Flower Shop on Newport that are not zoned for commercial and look like adapted single family units.

This is clearly a larger topic though and should not get in the way of building desperately needed homes.