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Home My WebLink About2008-08-18 Airport CommentsCessna A Textron Company July 11, 2008 Deschutes County Community Development Department 117 NW Lafayette Avenue Bend, OR 97701 Subject: File Number PA08-xxxx (file number to be provided to Cessna) Dear Sirs and Madames, Cessna's Bend Plant adjoins the subject property at the Bend Airport. The proposed zone change will benefit the Bend Airport and Cessna Accordingly, please consider this letter an affirmation of our support and join the City of Bend in recommending approval of the referenced proposal. Sincerely, Mark Withrow General Manager, Cessna Bend 541-330-4100 Office 541-788-4654 CeII view JUl 14 2008 Deschutes county CDD Cessna Aircraft Company 22550 Nelson Road, Bend, 011 97701, 541.318.1144, 541.318.1177 Page 1 of 2 Bonnie Baker From: Nunzie [nunzie@pacifier.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 2:02 AM To: Dennis Luke; Mike Daly; Tammy Melton; Mike Daly Cc: Bonnie Baker Subject: {Spam?} Bend Airport Urban Renewal Plan Public Hearing Testimony for 8/6/08 agenda 11. Please enter this testimony into the public hearing record RE: 8/6/08 item 11. PUBLIC HEARING and Consideration of First Reading of Ordinance No. 2008-025, Making Certain Determinations and Findings Relating to and Approving the Bend Municipal Airport Urban Renewal Plan (Plan and Report) — Dave Kanner, County Administrator; John Russell, City of Bend http://www. deschutes. org/boardCalendar/docs/2567/8-6-08_Board_Mtg_Agenda. pdf http://www.deschutes.org/boardCalendar/docs/2567/Bend_Airport_Plan.Pdf Dear Deschutes County Commissioners: As recent this summer and owing to budget shortfalls at the City of Bend, additional monies were drawn from the City of Bend general fund to keep the Rural Tumalo Fire Station open. Next year, there is an expected increase in budget woes at the City of Bend which could further jeopardise staffing numbers at, hours of operation at and response times from the Tumalo Fire Station which is within the DCR FPD #2 district. There has been mention of closing the fire station if budget shortfalls become so dire. As you know, many rural Tumalo residents rely on the services from the Tumalo Fire Station which substantially improve the quality of life for response times for fire, life and safety and within 5 miles of the Tumalo Fire Station for reduced fire insurance premiums and reduced health insurance premiums. The Bend Airport Urban Renewel Plan you are taking public testimony on today will limit the revenues from new development within the DCRFPD #2, and should the program be successful to generate growth within this boundary, it will increase the demand on the Rural Fire District to provide more intense coverage, since what is proposed is to generate more buildings, more occupants, more traffic. (All without a tax revenue stream to the Fire District from these new improvements). Add to this the current economic downturn and foreclosure woes and it is quite conceivable that revenue collection rates and monies collected by the Rural Fire District will be less than in previous years and that property owners will appeal tax increases factored for this and/or future years. I encourage the Commission to provide a stable base for services for fire, ambulance and emergency personnel. It is not adequate to ask a portion of the rural fire district to accept reduced levels of service or hours of operation or staffing of for instance the Tumalo Fire Hall in order to provide adequate response time for an expanding density especially if this expansion is capping revenue to the Rural Fire District #2. Whilst I do see identified in page 7 of the Urban Renewel Plan item F. 1. "Construct Emergency Services Facility", I do not see where the funding for this new facility will be coming from, whether there is support from the DCRFPD #2 Board for such a facility and / or what assurance the City of Bend will offer that existing levels of service, staffing numbers, equipment, hours of fire station operation and response times will be guarranteed to the existing members of the fire district at the existing infrastructure locations. If the City of Bend is expecting the Rural Fire District to subsedize the City's expansion, (since the City's Urban Renewel District collects added revenue whilst the Rural Fire District would not see revenues on any new construction for 24 years), it seems only a matter of time before the Rural Fire District will be increasing rates to offset the increased needs of such new service and emergency services facility. In this case, it would appear hat members of the DCRFPD #2 should be voting on this matter of financial implication. What assurance will Deschutes County give your existing tax payers to protect our current levels of emergen,:y services prior to expanding demand on our services without adequate revenues to fund such an expansion? Thank you in advance for answering my question and for listening to my concerns. Several of these issues have been identified in correspondance since June 2008 between DCRFPD #2 Board, the Tashman Johnson LLC 8/20/2008 Page 2 of 2 consultants and the City of Bend and yet do not appear in your informational links. Nunzie Gould, member of DCRFPD #2 19845 JW Brown Rd Bend, OR 97701 541-420-3325 8/20/2008 Page 1 of 1 Bonnie Baker From: Dave Kanner Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 9:48 AM To: Bonnie Baker Subject: FW: Airport urban renewal Bonnie - The following e-mail should be entered in the record of the public hearing on the Airport Urban Renewal Plan From: John Russell [mailto:JRussell@ci.bend.or.us] Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 3:29 PM To: Dave Kanner Cc: Tom Fay Subject: Airport urban renewal Dave: Tom Fay and I agree on modifying the title of the emergency services facility in the airport plan as shown below. Please enter the new language in the public hearing record. Construct Emergency Services Facility (Type and Location to be determined). Thanks in advance, jr John R. Russell, AICP Director Urban Renewal/Economic Development City of Bend PO Box 431 710 NW Wall St. Bend, OR 97709 phone - 541-312-4913 fax - 541-385-6676 8/20/2008 August 8, 2008 RE: Urban Renewal at the Bend Airport Dear Commissioner, I am writing today as we will not be in town next Wednesday to comment on this issue. We am against the urban renewal plan. We believe there are many issues but those should be addressed in the EA plan and on the updating of the county comprehensive zone plan. Some background on us. My husband and I are both second or more generation Oregonians. We love the state and beautiful Central Oregon moving to the Bend area in 1983. After much research we purchased the property we are on in 1989 as our retirement home. The research included the airport and projected growth of such. We were told that the airport would always remain a small airport serving only the needs of the hobby pilot. There were no plans of ever having any commercial interests there. The Redmond airport was the major one and since there was so much buildup of homes any other commercial aspect not handled by Redmond would be best served by Prineville. That unfortunately has changed over the years as the area has grown and we have adapted to the major increase of traffic on Powell Butte Highway... to the point where we plan when we leave so we can get out of our driveway. We are very concerned with the talk of adding even more employees to the airport as we already have enough traffic at peak times. We are also VERY concerned that in the airport Environmental Analysis, AFTER I brought it to their attention, that the intersection with Powell Butte Hwy and Neff/Alfalfa Market was never studied. That to us is a glaring omission that they wish to avoid since the intersection is so deadly. The meaning here to us is that the airport only wishes to avoid anything that might hinder their development and they don't give a dang about the safety of Deschutes County citizens. Now, addressing the urban renewal district which is just funding. We believe that it is a hidden tax on the residence of Deschutes County to primarily fund two private industries... Cessna and Epic Air. The Bend Airport tells us that there are no major impacts with creating an urban renewal district but we all know that funding has to come from somewhere and our county government services will take a major hit... just as the Bend Rural Fire District testified. It is not only them that responds to the increase dangers but our Sheriff's Office as well will take a bigger hit with increased calls than what is in this projection that we believe was minimized to get approval. The Sheriff Office is already hurting and need more officers to respond to calls. Increasing traffic and workers in the urban renewal area will increase demand on their services with a frozen tax base. Where will the funds come from that will be missing for COCC, government services, 4-H and those things that will have their funds frozen for up to 25 years? More bonds will be asked for the taxpayer to make up the difference... resulting in what we consider a hidden tax. We can't let our Fire department go bankrupt as they testify would happen if this is approved. Our Deschutes County has already taken a reduction in the planning department for lack of funds. The city of Bend will not suffer funding cuts from this but it is them that will benefit from the urban renewal plan at the expense of Deschutes County as a whole. We feel that we are being asked to fund private industry to entice them to stay. Cessna won't stay unless they can expand and they have to have an expensive compass rose to stay and most other improvements in the urban renewal plan are meant for those companies alone... so then if it is Cessna and Epic that need these large expenditure to stay in business then they should be the ones to fund it not the taxpayers of Deschutes County. We don't need to add layers to the runway for increased weight. The airport in Redmond is there to handle the need of that large of plane. It is only a few minutes away. The weight limit was there to protect area residences from the noise of larger planes and increased air traffic. Bend was never intended for such use with the homes built around it. As we stated above the purpose was not industry but for the hobbyist pilot. The airport is limited on land so what happens when Cessna and/or Epic can no longer expand? They will leave and leave the airport with large structures empty and deteriorating. What will happen to Powell Butte Highway with the increased traffic demands in the next 25 years if these companies and others continue to expand (if more property is made available for such expansion of the airport?) The noise and danger of testing aircraft affects many citizens as testified already. They are testing aircraft over heavily populated areas of Deschutes County affecting the safety of such. In Prineville the airport has commercial buildings and open space which lends itself to better facilitate testing of manufacture of aircraft. It scares me living below an area that has uncertified planes flying above me and also the great numbers of training pilots of helicopters and planes. This has not been a problem in the past but with the new airport management all they see is dollar signs and they don't seem to care about the safety of Deschutes County residences that were here before that big money came into play. The city of Bend seem to forget that we are taxpayers which is easy for them to do since they don't collect taxes from us. This urban renewal plan is asking us to fund improvements that will adversely affect the quality of our lives so that Bend and the big players, Cessna and Epic Air, will benefit at our expense. We are concerned with how the tax dollars from this urban renewal plan would be used to further deteriorate the lives of people that were here before the airport and the City of Bend become so money hungry. We are concerned about our quality of life as more demands are placed on our fixed income to pay for large industry this urban renewal plan will place upon us... meaning the bonds or whatever else is used to make up for the tax dollars that would be frozen to our county government to fund private industry and the city of Bend. We urge you to deny this urban renewal plan. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. Leslie and Harry Ketrenos 62237 Powell Butte Hwy. Bend, Or. 97701 YCc � 11,E• fl»s ECE nS AUG - 82008 BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ADMINISTRATION Page 1 of 1 Bonnie Baker From: Brandon Wilcox [brandon@proairservices.com] Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 10:06 AM To: Board Subject: Airport Urban Renewal Area Dear Board of Commissioners, I am writing in strong support of the Airport Urban Renewal Area project. Aviation is a difficult industry to be successful in at best and any support given by the local government to encourage growth is greatly appreciated. With your support, along with help from the city and state, the Bend Airport can become an economic powerhouse and do much for the local economy. The approval of the Airport Urban Renewal Area will reap benefits for some time. Sincerely, gravtdow wCLcox Partvter/ c,eweraL Mafroser Pro fessiovoL ALr 541-388-0019 8/20/2008