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Bend unveils net‑zero public works campus aimed at all‑electric operations and resilience
Summary
City staff presented plans for a 35.5‑acre, all‑electric public works campus at Juniper Ridge that combines multiple departments into three primary buildings, emphasizes passive design, mass‑timber construction, a site microgrid, solar canopies and EV charging, and targets deep energy reductions under Energy Trust of Oregon's Path Zero.
Joe Wells, the city's facilities architect and principal project manager, briefed the committee on a new public works campus planned on a 35.5‑acre parcel in Juniper Ridge that the city owns. He said the campus consolidates functions now scattered across multiple facilities into three primary buildings — a headquarters for offices and public‑facing spaces, a fleet maintenance building and an operations building with shops and warm vehicle storage — plus a large yard for materials and fleet parking.
Wells said the project was designed to be all‑electric and to push the city's sustainability goals: the team enrolled in Energy Trust of Oregon's Path Zero program to drive toward roughly an 80% energy‑performance reduction compared with a conventional equivalent building, and the site has been planned to accommodate more PV and future battery storage. "We are targeting actually 100% net neutral," Wells said, adding that the project remains in a tuning phase and that full performance benchmarks will take about 12–18 months to reach.
The project team chose a progressive design‑build procurement approach and emphasized three priorities: an efficient, user‑focused workplace; community benefits and fiscal responsibility; and regenerative planning and design. Construction choices favor lower embodied carbon and durability: Wells described use of mass timber and cross‑laminated timber floors with a combination of steel where required, concrete slab radiant heating and cooling, and strategies to preserve existing site soils and landscape.
From an energy systems perspective the campus was conceived without natural gas on site. Wells said, "we were not going to use natural gas at all," so all mechanical systems are electric and the design includes daylighting, tight envelopes, efficient mechanical systems, and substantial on‑site solar. Solar arrays are sited on the fleet roof and as structural canopies to both generate energy and protect vehicles from sun and snow; the campus also includes a microgrid and space reserved for a future battery system. Staff reported roughly $463,000 in incentives from Energy Trust of Oregon, a $21,000 EV charging grant and a $100,000 Oregon Department of Energy design grant for battery backup (the team was not awarded construction funds for batteries this round but left space for future installation).
Committee members asked whether charging infrastructure plans would support heavy‑duty vehicles in the future; Wells said initial provisioning focuses on light‑duty fleet chargers but the site layout and parking design allow conversion or expansion for heavier charging as vehicles are electrified. Wells also described occupant experience tradeoffs after occupancy, noting glare from increased daylighting and staff adjustments such as anti‑glare screens and desk rotation.
Staff said the city will host a public open house and continue outreach to share lessons learned. The presentation emphasized that the campus aims both to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from city operations and to provide a resilient operations hub for extreme weather or emergency response.
Next steps include continued commissioning and monitoring to tune performance, pursuing additional PV and battery funding for resilience, and ongoing outreach to the public and building professionals. The project team noted the facility will remain in a performance‑tuning period for the coming year to 18 months.
