Bend releases prioritized stormwater master plan projects, flags funding and coordination needs

City of Bend stormwater staff on a February meeting presented a draft Stormwater Master Plan that ranks capital drainage projects and required outfall retrofits, identifies 17 high-priority drill-hole retrofits posing groundwater risk, and places hundreds of smaller repair and maintenance needs in program lists for phased implementation.

The presentation, led by Trista Kabulski, stormwater master plan project manager, summarized how public input and staff scoring produced a combined capital project list that interleaves water-quality outfall retrofits and drainage projects. Kabulski told the Water Advisory Group the outfall retrofit work is needed to meet the city—s municipal stormwater permit and that the team prioritized six basins for retrofit concepts.

City staff said the prioritized capital list reflects an effort to balance conveyance and flooding needs with water-quality outcomes. The plan uses a scoring matrix (maximum 80 points) that now gives equal weight (20 points each) to conveyance/flooding and water-quality improvements, raises multiple-benefits weighting to 20 points, and lowers the weight for previously recognized priority projects. Kabulski said no single project approached the full 80-point total, and staff expect cost estimates to refine priority placement.

Among the projects discussed were retrofit concepts in central basins that discharge to the Deschutes River, a set of drainage projects distributed across the city, and two long-standing projects from the 2014 Stormwater Master Plan (Greenwood and Franklin undercrossing fixes) that remain "in progress." Staff described a likely implementation pathway that coordinates some retrofits with planned transportation work to reduce construction impacts and costs.

The plan separates larger capital projects from programmatic efforts. Program lists include: major maintenance and repair (projects done in-house or with consultants), a failing UIC (underground injection control) remediation program, and the drill-hole retrofit/rehab list. Kabulski said the city has more than 7,000 UICs, some of which are failing because of sedimentation or inadequate capacity; the master plan recommends city-led rehab or replacement as resources allow.

Kabulski described the 17 drill holes the consultant identified as higher priority because they either lack separation from groundwater, lack pretreatment, or are near municipal wells. She said staff will likely bundle those 17 into two combined capital projects to address many sites efficiently. "We have a list of 17 of those that are recommended to go forward in the stormwater master plan," Kabulski said.

City staff also noted several projects sited on or adjacent to parks and recreation property and said they plan to coordinate with Bend Park and Recreation District before finalizing recommendations. In downtown, staff proposed a combined drainage-and-access project to address winter ponding that creates pedestrian safety and ADA accessibility issues; staff noted some intersections likely need regrading or additional inlets and that coordination with downtown transportation and beautification projects would be important.

On schedule and next steps, staff said the full master plan will include the prioritized capital list, programmatic recommendations, policy guidance on topics such as drainage and density, climate-change considerations and implementation sequencing. The plan will go to the Community Building subcommittee and then to Bend City Council for adoption. Staff also said they will develop cost estimates and cut sheets for the top capital projects and will feed the results into a future discussion about stormwater rates.

City staff cautioned the draft priority list does not yet reflect costs; staff will develop cost estimates for the top nine projects and for program implementation. Bureau representatives said the combined costs of the capital list and programs likely exceed current stormwater fee revenue and that timing and scale of implementation will depend on whether rates change, grants are obtained or projects are staged.

The Water Advisory Group will have further opportunities to review the plan, the mapping layer and the draft memo. Staff posted a web map and materials for review and said they will resend links and ensure meeting recordings are reachable from the City of Bend project page.

Ending: Staff asked the advisory group for final comments before the plan moves into the city review process and for input on coordination with Park and Recreation and public outreach; the group will continue discussion on related water topics at upcoming March and April meetings.