City staff outlines timeline, focus areas for Bendeconomic development strategic plan

City of Bend staff told members of the Community Advisory Board (CAB) on Wednesday that the city will pursue its first formal economic development strategic plan, with a timeline that targets council adoption on Dec. 3, 2025.

The plan is intended to set a 10-year vision and five-year implementation priorities for business growth, workforce supports and place-making, Cyrus, business advocate for the City of Bend, said during a presentation and Q&A. "When you boil it down, it's essentially a work plan that will occur over the next several months through December of this calendar year that hopefully gets us to the adoption of our first economic development strategic plan," Cyrus said.

City staff framed the effort around three core pillars: business (recruiting, retaining and growing employers), people (housing, workforce and services) and place (public amenities and sustainable infrastructure). The work plan calls for additional research, a three-stage focus-group sequence and broad stakeholder outreach that staff said will include about 100 stakeholder interviews by July or early August.

Jonathan Taylor, urban renewal…