As many of you know, on November 3, 2020, Bend voters passed Transportation Bond Measure 9-135. Our community said that congestion & neighborhood safety are community priorities, and helped the City design a list of projects voters ultimately approved. This bond measure will pay to build priority projects in every part of the city to:

Improve traffic flow and east-west connections
Improve neighborhood safety

The City created a Transportation Bond Oversight Committee (TBOC) to monitor, track and report to the community on project expenses, schedule, progress and benchmarks.

The committee has been meeting for a number of months and has come up with a list of transportation projects to recommend to the Bend City Council. The first such project is the Wilson Street Corridor Improvements. This is a multi-phase modernization project to improve safety and east-west connectivity for all users along Wilson Avenue from 2nd street to 15th street. The project is currently in the design stage. The West section, from 2nd street to Douglas Street is being designed between August 2020 and November 2021 and the East Section, from Douglas Street to 15th Street, is being designed from September 2021 to June 22, with construction dates still to be determined. However construction could begin as early as this winter.

The committee met November 9th to finalize a list of projects to recommend to the City Council for the first five years of the ten year bond measure. This list is available at this link: https://bend.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=18&event_id=725&meta_id=53239

However the TBOC sent this list to Council with the suggestion that the 4th and 8th Street Intersection Improvements be moved up from their current schedule so the entire Neff Corridor would be completed at about the same time, thereby allowing ease of use by walkers and bikers.

In addition, the committee stipulated that the Bear Creek Road Improvements might also be moved up from their current sequence in the event that the housing project on the corner of Bear Creek and Pettigrew, for which a development application has been filed, is approved by the city.

A number of the projects listed on Attachment A would impact the Larkspur Neighborhood. Obviously work on the Reed Market Corridor and Bear Creek Road would involve the neighborhood, as would the current Wilson Street project. The 4th street intersection improvements that the TCOB moved up and the Aune Street Extension would impact us as well and the general improvements listed as “improved access to transit”, “local residential street safety” and “intelligent transportation systems improvements” would likely impact all neighborhoods including Larkspur.

Additional information may be found at the attachments below and at the TBOC website at https://www.bendoregon.gov/government/committees/bond-oversight-committee.

Bend 2020 Transportation GO Bond Draft Capital Improvement Program Overview Click HERE

Transportation Bond Update

TBOC Recommends 5-year project schedule

Wildflower property Neighborhood public meeting