The City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee on Thursday reviewed a draft letter of support for Bend Parks and Recreation District’s grant application to acquire about 47 acres of natural area in northwest Bend but decided to postpone endorsement until members can review more detailed accessibility commitments.

Committee members raised concerns that the draft, modeled on wording from the Miller’s Landing template, was too high level and lacked firm guarantees that accessibility features would be included during future site development. Cassandra (Accessibility & Equity Manager) said the grant under consideration covers land purchase only and that specific development plans and public outreach would come later if the acquisition succeeds.

COBAC members called for more specificity about parking and trail access, direct inclusion of people with disabilities in planning, and a formal presentation from Parks staff. "If Kovac is endorsing a letter of support for a proposed new park, Kovac would be either having a member sit on the committee as a liaison or some other way more actively involved in the planning process," said Andrew Caruana, a COBAC member, requesting ongoing engagement rather than a one-time endorsement.

Carl Abernett said he supported the purchase but wanted the letter to explicitly ask that people with disabilities or accessibility experts be included in planning. John Halen, who raised concerns about current lack of public parking and access to the trail reach, said acquiring the land could open public access but that the draft lacked "meat" on how that would work.

Cassandra said she would invite Quinn Keever, the Parks planner who requested the letter, to present more details at a future meeting and solicited volunteers to help edit the draft. The committee agreed to move the item to a later meeting and to request a formal presentation from Parks before taking a vote.

The draft support letter lists desired improvements if the park is developed, including an accessible parking lot and ADA-compliant trailhead, ADA restrooms, a primary soft-surface trail built to ABA standards, bilingual signage, benches with companion seating and bike racks. Cassandra emphasized that those development details are conceptual at this stage, not guaranteed by the land-acquisition grant.

COBAC did not take a formal vote on the letter and tasked staff with arranging a presentation and circulating revised language for review.

Going forward, committee members offered to meet with Parks staff to draft more specific language and asked Parks to clarify whether a letter of support is required for grant scoring or merely supplemental.