8/21/2007 6:33:00 PM
Skyline Forest owner seeks development
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| Fidelity National Financial wants to develop 5,000 to 7,000 acres of the 33,000 Skyline Forest and donate the rest to the Deschutes Basin Land Trust. photo by Jim Yuskavitch |
| | Plan calls for homes | Fidelity National Financial's plans for a development on 5,000 to 7,000 acres of the Skyline Forest don't fall into the development categories Central Oregonians are used to seeing.
"It's definitely not a destination resort," said Greg Lane, who is taking the lead on Fidelity's proposed project (see related story, page 1).
"It would be a residential community; I call it a Planned Unit Development."
The actual shape of the development has not even hit the drawing board yet. Design Workshop of Aspen, Colorado, is still in the process of site exploration, looking at views and wildlife corridors. It appears that the development would probably be nestled in the northwest quadrant of the forest nearest to Sisters.
"I think that's the likely location," Lane said.
The configuration of the community is yet to be determined, though it is Fidelity's intent to use only about 2,000 of the 5,000 to 7,000 acres set aside for development. This would allow for some 500 to 1,000 homes with considerable buffer space.
There may be a golf course. Fidelity's Rock Creek Cattle Co. development in Whitefish, Montana, features a course designed by Tom Doaks, who designed Pacific Dunes in Bandon. Doaks' designs are considered low-impact.
"If we do do a golf course, it would be with a guy like Tom," Lane said.
Lane expects to soon have a more definitive concept to present at community workshops in Bend and Sisters, which could happen as soon as next month. The company is seeking community input early in the process in an effort to build consensus and support for a project that would require special legislation to get off the ground.
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Skyline Forest is a massive tract of private land east of Three Creek Road between Sisters and Bend. For decades, even as it was logged for timber, local horsemen have ridden its trails, hikers have explored its woods and residents of Plainview and Bend have looked out on its green vista laid against the Three Sisters.
Fidelity National Financial, owners of the 33,000-acre parcel - three times bigger than the Sisters School District - are now offering up a proposal that would allow the Deschutes Basin Land Trust (DBLT) to preserve about 28,000 acres as a community forest.
In exchange for donating that land to DBLT, Fidelity is seeking the right to develop a residential community on some 5,000 acres. While the exact location of the proposed development has yet to be determined, it will very likely lie in the northeastern quadrant of the forest closest to Sisters.
Any such project would require special legislation. Such legislation could come in the form of an amendment to Community Forests Authority legislation.
Winning legislation means winning broad public acceptance. Fidelity plans a series of workshops with local communities to seek input on their plans. Those could start as early as next month.
Greg Lane of Fidelity National pointed to his company's Rock Creek Cattle Co. in Whitefish, Montana, as an example of how development and conservation can be linked and gain widespread community support.
"It's become a wildly popular project in Montana," Lane said.
The company plans the same kind of transparent and open public process it followed with that project, bringing all stakeholders to the table from the beginning.
"What we did in Montana is what we're going to be doing out here," Lane said.
Fidelity's representatives have had conversations with at least one legislator, but no one has stepped forward yet to sponsor a bill that would facilitate the project.
Local land use watchdog Paul Dewey is already raising some red flags.
"The scale of what they're doing would have a huge impact on the Tumalo Deer Winter Range," he said.
Dewey's organization, Central Oregon Land Watch, has not taken an official position on the proposal, in part because it remains largely undefined. However, he said, "our outlook is that there's some really serious problems with it."
Lane emphasizes that the development envelope of 5,000 to 7,000 acres is considerably larger than the actual development, which is expected to use about 2,000 acres with large amounts of buffer space (see related story, page 35).
Dewey, however, still thinks development of that scale would fragment the deer winter range.
Lane said Fidelity has already anticipated one of Sisters' likely concerns with the project: Traffic. Both Lane and attorney Nancy Craven, who is representing Fidelity, said that routing access on Three Creek Road and down into Sisters is off the table.
"That's not the preferred route at all," Craven said.
Instead, the developers have several options for access more or less directly to Highway 20 which would route traffic across the sagebrush plains east of Sisters.
Dewey is skeptical that developers could prevent informal access to Three Creek Road and into Sisters without closing large numbers of Forest Service roads in the area.
A large part of the equation lies in the potential for the donation of a huge tract of forest, a large portion of the land DBLT has been trying for several years to acquire.
DBLT Executive Director Brad Chalfant notes that the Land Trust has not taken a position on the proposal. Yet, he acknowledges that it may be the best chance of preserving most of the land.
Chalfant said that DBLT's preference would be to preserve the entire 33,000-acre forest. However, he believes conservationists have to be open to proposals such as Fidelity's.
"We're faced with development on an unprecedented scale," he said. "We have to get creative."
The 28,000 acres, which DBLT would manage for forest health, including the use of selective logging, would be a showpiece of the concept of the Community Forest - a forest that is productive, yet preserves recreational access and ecological values.
"This would certainly be the largest Community Forest in the West," Chalfant said.
The alternative could be a multiplicity of owners and development across the whole forest, according to Fidelity.
When the company acquired the property from the holding company that held Crown Pacific's land interests, the property was set to go on the auction block, with the possibility that it could be divided into several ownerships.
If the company is unable to get legislation that will allow the project, "at some point we'd have to put it back up for sale," Lane told The Nugget. "And at that time you'd probably have the same cross-section of potential buyers - land speculators and timber operations."
Lane represents Fidelity as a safer and more reliable alternative for those interested in preserving the forest.
"We can in relatively short order preserve (about) 26,000 acres forever, and that's a pretty neat concept," Lane said. "I'm not sure that a subsequent owner would do the same thing."
Dewey isn't buying it. He says he's heard folks say before that if their development wasn't allowed those who followed would be worse. That didn't pan out, he said.
"I don't see the dire consequences they're portraying," Dewey said.
"There's always some risk. But if what you're dealing with in the first instance is a development that would damage wildlife range, I don't think you're gaining much."
Dewey is also concerned that legislation that would allow this project would encourage more such actions.
"You're setting a horrible precedence for all forested areas," he said.
This kind of objection is exactly what Lane and Fidelity hope to get on the table right off the bat. For his part Chalfant is pleased to see that Fidelity is willing to address matters so forthrightly.
"I've never seen a developer willing to have this kind of public dialogue," he said.
What do you think of the Fidelity National Financial concept? Let The Nugget know. E-mail editor@nuggetnews.com or comment on this story online at www.nuggetnews.com.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Article comment by:
M. Robin (Runco) Stenkamp
I know Three Creeks Road very well and love Sisters because that is where I grew up 47 years ago. Fidelity National Financial can give a lot of fancy proposals but it all comes down to the destruction of our forest, our bike paths, our animals and the land that we love. Fidelity, please examine your name carefully. Thank you and God Bless
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2007
Article comment by:
Lance Moore
My grandmother lived in Sisters many years ago when it was a much different place. She lived in a cabin alone and cut her own firewood at age 80!
I am glad that she never witnessed her beloved land of Sisters and all of central Oregon become the commodity of real estate investors and developers that it is today.
Back then, promises of "preservation" tied to agreements for development were tricks that no one would buy.
My suggestion is that the entire forest be cut down, developed and sold immediately in order to avoid this slow death happening in Central Oregon today.
Why not just get it over with?
Posted: Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Article comment by:
Steve Hanna
Sisters is a great place to live.
Clearly, Fidelity National Financial, Coleson's Ponderosa Cattle Co., and Lundgren's Dutch Pacific see the benefit of selling our unique community to others. What a compliment...
I wonder, have they figured out where they will get the water? With Colson's two man made lakes and 18 hole golf course to the north (more water usage than Redmond), and the newly proposed 500 to 1000 homes with golf by Tom to the south of town(not to mention Dutch Pacific) who are we kidding?
Our natural resources and way of life are being squandered on these outside players.
Growth in Sisters is realistic. Quality of life is why we live here. Will we enjoy the increase of traffic, pollution, and unrealistic water usage the WalMarts of development espouse?
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