Housing group explores community center idea
By Jim Cornelius

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Developers of an approximately 24 unit affordable housing project in Sisters are exploring the possibilities of creating a community center on nearby city park land.

Cyndy Cook of the Central Oregon Regional Housing Authority (CORHA) broached the idea at a Sisters City Council workshop on Thursday, February 15.

"We have a community center on all our other sites," Cook told the council. "A community center is an important piece of an overall concept."

However, the site in Sisters, near the Weitech building, is too small to accommodate a center. So Cook hoped to explore possibilities with the council of working with the city to site a center on 2.3 acres of city-owned park land adjacent to the proposed affordable housing development.

"If there's mutual goals here, I think we can put our creative caps on (to find funding)," Cook said.

Councilors agreed that the city lacks meeting space and that seniors have expressed interest in having a center. The city parks plan indicates that a community building would be appropriate at that site.

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Mayor Steve Wilson cautioned, however, that community needs would have to be clearly identified before a project goes forward. He said he was leery of any project where builders would seek funding and create a facility, then try to find user groups to benefit from it.

Wilson also noted that a center built on city land must serve all the citizens of Sisters and there could not be a "disproportionate benefit" to the residents of the future affordable housing project.

With those cautions, the council gave Cook the go ahead to make preliminary inquiries into the availability of grant funding.

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