A viable alternate location on county owned land is available for a county shelter for adult male parolees. A neighbor has spent considerable time and effort putting together the following information for Deschutes County Commissioners, and it was presented to the Board of County Commissioners on 02/28/2024:
There are over 2 acres of undeveloped/underutilized County land around the County Parole & Probation, County Juvenile, County Sheriff, County Jail, and State Police buildings. While there are plans in the works for many of these vacant spaces, there is a 0.25 acre region at the southeast corner of the southern County parcel that does not have any near-term facility plans yet established or announced. This general area (east of Veteran's village and south of the L-shaped overflow parking lot) has been generally considered as a potential future area to which the existing maintenance facilities could be relocated to allow more room for expansion of the jail.
Parolee housing at this location would be very convenient for parole officers and would pose minimal new impacts to existing residential neighborhoods, while also being well-located in town with access to services, transit, jobs, shopping, etc. The proposed parolee housing site area has been kept to a minimum (~0.25 acres) in order to preserve ~1.6 acres for the potential future relocation of maintenance facilities to the north.
Here's an image that shows the county's public safety campus and proposed Parolee Housing Site (lower right).
From a brief review of the Bend Development Code, it appears there are viable pathways for permitting this new development in the Mixed Employment (ME) Zone, where the following relevant uses are permitted:
- Shelters
- Urban Dwelling Site per BDC 3.8.800, including Townhomes, Duplexes, Triplexes, Fourplexes, Multi-unit Residential, Micro-units
- Lodging
- Short-Term Rentals
- Hotels/Motels
If you think this is a good solution, please email the County Commissioners (board@deschutes.org) and let them know.