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Bend planning commission reviews 2025 stormwater master plan and public facility plan
Summary
City staff on Monday presented the proposed 2025 Stormwater Master Plan and a Public Facility Plan appendix to the Bend Comprehensive Plan, summarizing a 20-year prioritized program to address stormwater conveyance and water-quality problems and a planning-level 20-year cost estimate of roughly $80 million.
City staff on Monday presented the proposed 2025 Stormwater Master Plan and an associated Public Facility Plan (PFP) text amendment for Chapter 8 of the Bend Comprehensive Plan. The presentation — led by senior planner Damien Srinick and senior project engineer Austin Sonnhagee with environmental resources manager Lori Fea — described the plan as a technical inventory and 20-year prioritization of stormwater assets intended to replace the city's 2014 plan and support compliance with Statewide Planning Goal 11 and related Oregon Administrative Rules.
The master plan compiles an inventory of stormwater assets, condition assessments (good/fair/poor/unknown), and project fact sheets to inform a capital improvement program. Staff said the city's dispersed infiltration approach relies on roughly 7,000 underground injection controls (UICs) and about 80 miles of storm main pipe, with approximately seven miles draining to the Deschutes River through roughly 36 outfalls. The plan incorporates CCTV condition surveys and a prioritization matrix that weighs water quality and conveyance/flooding needs alongside equity, safety, maintenance and feasibility.
Why it matters: the plan provides the factual and policy basis the city will use to size, time and fund future stormwater improvements. Staff emphasized groundwater protection work in the master plan, including updated modeling for emerging contaminants such as PFAS and a new groundwater table map intended to guide siting and design of UICs and protect drinking-water resources.
Key details: staff said short-term projects (years 1'5) are largely already budgeted or identified; the master plan's recommended program focuses on years 6'20 and includes a mix of capital improvement projects and continuing programs such as drill-hole retrofit, a failing-UIC replacement program, and a major-maintenance list. A planning-level 20-year cost estimate presented to the commission was roughly $80,000,000.
Questions and next steps: commissioners pressed staff on climate-change effects (how intense short-duration storms affect design standards), groundwater risk, the role of drill-hole legacy systems, and how proposed next steps relate to development-code updates for managing drainage in higher-density areas. Staff said many implementation details (stormwater design standards, tree inventories, precise project phasing) will be refined at later stages; the PFP is scheduled for a council information session on Dec. 3 and a planning commission public hearing on Dec. 8, followed by council hearings in December/January for adoption.
Staff and presenters referenced the Federal Clean Water Act/NPDES and DEQ permits that regulate stormwater discharges, and they said the PFP is intended to demonstrate compliance with Goal 11 and OAR requirements for public facility plans. The planning commission did not take formal action on the PFP at the session; staff will return with the public-facilities hearing materials on Dec. 8.
