The president of the Bend-based Oxford Hotel Group may build apartments or mixed-use housing on five acres near the intersection of U.S. Highway 97 and China Hat Road, at the former Sunriver Preparatory School site.
Curt Baney, son of Oxford Hotel Group co-founder Curtis Baney, filed preliminary paperwork with the city of Bend last week, requesting a pre-application meeting with Community Development Department officials to discuss the proposal.
Most of the details are still unknown, according to Deborah McMahon, a local land-use planner working with Baney on the project.
The pre-application request indicates that Baney and McMahon want to discuss a possible urban growth boundary expansion for the property “to develop apartments and support services.”
But McMahon said Wednesday that the plan could change, based on what they hear from city staff.
“We have more questions than we have plans at this point,” McMahon said. “We’re just in the very early stages of talking with the city about the process.”
Baney did not return phone calls seeking comment this week. McMahon said he was on vacation.
Baney has owned the 5-acre parcel since early 2006, Deschutes County property records show. The parcel lies on the west side of Highway 97 starting at China Hat Road and stretching south to Rocking Horse Road. The Waldorf School of Bend occupies part of the site, as well as several single-family homes, but most of the land is vacant.
The parcel had served as the site for the Sunriver Preparatory School between 1983 and 2003, when it closed, according to county property records and The Bulletin’s archives.
Bend’s urban growth boundary ends immediately north of Baney’s land, which is zoned rural residential, according to county records. Under Oregon law, urban growth boundaries dictate where housing and commercial developments can be plotted within a city.
The city’s UGB was last expanded in 1981, though city and state officials have spent the last several years discussing an expansion, which would include Baney’s property, according to the latest proposal.
The pre-application meeting is the first step of a sometimes lengthy permitting process, where developers and city development staff meet to discuss potential zoning, construction or infrastructure concerns. It’s common for developers to modify their plans following pre-application meetings, then re-submitting them to the city. That back-and-forth can continue for several months before a formal application is submitted.
