Summary of Dec. 19 board of directors meeting
December 20, 2023
The BPRD board of directors closed out its 2023 calendar of business at the Dec. 19 meeting with approval of a design contract for the Art Station. A video recording of the meeting is available.
Art Station
In September, the board of directors provided direction to BPRD staff to construct a new home for the Art Station at Larkspur Park, across the lawn area from the Larkspur Center. In October, the district advertised the Request for Proposal (RFP) for professional design services for the Art Station Project. The scope-of-work included project management, survey, design development, construction documents, permitting, cost estimating, bidding and construction administration services.
Hacker Architects from Portland and Bend was selected to enter into contract negotiations with the district. It is expected that design will begin in early 2024, with outreach happening in winter/spring 2024. Construction documents are anticipated to be complete toward the end of 2024, with construction to follow from 2025 into 2026. The board approved a total design budget not to exceed $258,500 of the $2.5 million project budget.
Budget committee
The board re-appointed Joanne Mathews and Cary Schneider to the budget committee for a three-year term of service. Mathews and Schneider completed their terms at the end of the budget process for fiscal year 2023-24 and both indicated a desire to serve again.
Executive director search update
Four of the five board members met in executive session on Dec. 19 for an interview with the internal finalist, Michelle Healy, deputy executive director, for the position of executive director that will be vacant due to the impending retirement of Don Horton. Comments from the remaining board member is requested by Dec. 21 to move forward to the next step of the process.
City of Bend’s System Development Charges
Russ Grayson and Sarah Hutson with the City of Bend shared information about their system development charges (SDC) update underway. The city’s current SDC project involves a comprehensive review of their transportation and water methodologies and project lists, and a review of the implementation structures for all three of their SDCs (transportation, water and sewer). In addition to updating the SDC fees, the city’s goal is to revamp how the fees are charged for greater consistency across each system. Housing affordability is an overarching consideration guiding the city’s update effort.
BPRD assesses park SDCs on the development of new homes and overnight visitor accommodations to help pay for the construction of new parks, trails and recreation facilities to serve population growth. The district pays the city of Bend 1.6% of each park SDC assessed to collect the district’s SDCs. The district is also charged SDCs for water, sewer and transportation to develop most new parks and recreation facilities that serve the community.
Changes to city SDC rates directly impact the cost of providing new parks, trails and recreation centers; which subsequently indirectly impacts the park SDC rates charged since park SDC rates are based on the cost of the projects needed to serve population growth. Staff’s initial review of the city’s new SDC methodologies indicate that all SDCs paid by the district are expected to increase (with some exceptions).
The city staff also shared information about the proposed transportation fee. The board intended to draft a letter to submit to the City Council. A work session with City Council is scheduled for Jan. 3.
Needs/Unmet Needs Analysis
This work session presentation and discussion was to familiarize the board with the needs/unmet needs methodology and the project criteria staff proposes to use to establish project priorities for the mid-term comprehensive plan update.
Once staff have the data from the latest community survey, they will run the needs/unmet analysis and apply the priority criteria to develop the project list and priorities. The results of the analysis, the proposed project list and priorities will be presented to the board for discussion at meetings later this winter.
The next meeting is Jan. 2.