Bend Seeks Sequential Review Pathway for 20-Year Growth Plan; County Asked to Join UGB Amendment Process

Summary

City of Bend staff briefed the joint meeting on a proposed sequential review under state rules for the city’s 20-year growth-plan update. The approach would seek early state acknowledgement of land-need products before submitting later land-use changes and a UGB amendment; the city will seek council action Nov. 19 and staff said they would ask the

BEND, Ore. — City of Bend planning staff asked the Deschutes County Board and Bend City Council Sept. 29 to approve a sequential-review approach under state rules for the city’s next 20-year growth-plan update, telling the joint session the process could reduce the risk of remands by getting core land-need analyses approved before proceeding to zoning and UGB expansions.

Brian Raek, Long Range Planning manager for the City of Bend, and Damien Sernick, senior planner, described a multi-package work plan that would address housing and employment land needs first (package 1, 2026–27), then move into capacity, efficiency measures, climate-friendly areas and the UGB amendment (package 2, 2028–29). Raek said sequential review is a method other Oregon cities have used and that new statewide rules (including the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis and climate-focused planning rules) increase the value of staging the review.

Why it matters

Sequential review allows the city to seek state acknowledgement on core technical products—buildable lands inventory, initial housing capacity analysis and economic opportunity analysis—before pursuing the UGB amendment and the zoning changes that depend on those technical determinations. City staff…

Bend Seeks Sequential Review Pathway for 20-Year Growth Plan; County Asked to Join UGB Amendment Process

Summary

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