Bend urban renewal manager outlines strategy to use tax increment financing for housing, jobs and infrastructure

Jonathan Taylor, urban renewal manager for the City of Bend, briefed the Environmental and Climate Committee on a draft Urban Renewal investment strategy that would guide how the Bend Urban Renewal Agency uses tax increment financing (TIF) to support housing, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and beautification projects in existing TIF areas.

Taylor said the draft strategy identifies five focus areas — housing development, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, business and land development, and beautification — and describes short-, medium- and long-term investment types, from research to capacity-building infrastructure. He described program goals and several numeric targets that are part of the current draft.

Taylor identified housing targets in the draft: a short-term agency goal of 1,000 multi-family units, and a reference to an Oregon Housing Needs Assessment figure that staff used as context: the city would need about 33,000 new housing units by 2045 and roughly 8,500 over the next five years. Taylor also cited implementation and local preference goals in the draft: creating 250 units restricted to households at or below 90% of area median income (AMI), three energy-efficiency projects for multifamily buildings and a goal that 30% of construction work use local contractors.

On entrepreneurship and jobs, Taylor said the draft aims to support 10 new startups in core commercial corridors, create a self-sustaining revolving loan fund and a catalytic fund for larger projects. He noted targets such as creating 500 jobs in partnership with EDCO and developing 20 acres of undeveloped land in the Juniper Ridge TIF area, with an average target wage of about $72,000.

Taylor also described proposed infrastructure projects already in planning including Second Street streetscape work and the Franklin Undercrossing, and said staff are evaluating two North Bend areas to determine whether TIF could fund infrastructure that would enable more than 500 residential units in one area and Empire Avenue improvements in another; the latter would depend on an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with ODOT. Taylor said the agency's site-specific housing program will review its first five applications next Wednesday.

Committee members asked how the committee could provide input and whether a full-committee discussion or a smaller working group would be more effective. Taylor and staff suggested either a full committee discussion next month or forming a small working group to produce specific policy questions and feedback; the committee agreed to have Taylor return for a fuller discussion and to potentially form a small working group to develop more specific input.

Taylor framed the investment strategy as a draft that will be refined over the coming year, with a potential interim adoption of an investment strategy in June and a fuller economic development strategy in November. He asked committee members whether they wanted to be involved in shaping goals around climate-friendly investments and resilience and to weigh in on how TIF could be used to support electrification, energy efficiency and other climate priorities.

The committee did not take any formal vote on the strategy at this meeting; staff will return with additional information and a proposed process for committee input.