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The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

New health spa planned for Sisters
By Jim Cornelius

The future site of a Sisters "health retreat."

Bill and Zoe Willitts will take their vision of a 15-acre health spa retreat to the Sisters Planning Commission on Wednesday, September 18.

The couple is seeking to subdivide a 15-acre parcel along Highway 20 at the east end of town into 11 lots. The property -- across from Sisters Mobile Home and RV Park (formerly Circle 5) -- will house the Sisters Athletic Club, Physical Therapy Associates, Five Pine Spa, a restaurant and other health and medical-related businesses.

"The overall vision for that property is to create a health campus," Bill Willitts told The Nugget.

The athletic club facility, slated for construction in April 2003, will likely include a covered lap pool, Willitts said -- "a pool, ideally, that a high school team could train in."

The restaurant will be owned by Chip and Robin Dickinson of Sisters, according to Willitts. The specific type of restaurant is yet to be defined.

There will also be a conference center and 12 cottages (growing to approximately 36 when the project is complete in 2004-05). The conference center and cottages will be part of a destination retreat with what Willitts called a "contemplative" environment.

That leaves eight other lots open.

"We will have commercial lots for sale," Willitts said. "But it will have to be integrated."

The developer plans for all the commercial development to be oriented around health services and practices. There will also be 12 to 18 housing units on the site for employees or for "community-based" housing.

Willitts acknowledged that the housing concept remains vague, but the units would be configured as townhouses.

Those not rented by employees of the spa and related businesses could be available in the community.

Willitts also purchased 20 acres of contiguous property from the Lazy Z Ranch -- including the barn along the highway. According to Willitts, that land will remain zoned as Exclusive Farm Use as a buffer.

Willitts also secured an easement allowing access from the spa to Forest Service land south of the Lazy Z.

That access, Willitts said, is part of the spa's attraction -- an immersion in a natural environment.

The development will site the commercial uses along the highway frontage (set back 70 feet from the highway). There will be a "green" buffer area with water features, and lodging in the back of the property.

The planning commission will hear the subdivision request at their Wednesday, September 18 meeting, at 7 p.m.

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