House passes Skyline Forest bill
SALEM — Creation of a community forest west of Bend moved one step closer to reality Tuesday when the state House of Representatives approved House Bill 2228 in a vote that split the Central Oregon delegation.
But while the two-part bill means good news for those who would create a Skyline Forest, it translates to bad news for the would-be developers of the Metolian “eco resort” discussed for the Metolius River Basin.
In fact, Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, called the passage of the bill “another nail in the coffin” of the Metolian resort that has been discussed for the basin.
The confusing nature of the bill becomes less so when it comes to Skyline Forest, which is also known as the Bull Springs Tree Farm.
The bill would let Fidelity National Timber Resources Inc., which owns Skyline, build 197 dwellings in a small portion of the forest if the company agrees to sell about 45,000 acres, including most of Skyline, to a land trust.
The Skyline parcel extends from a few miles west of Bend northwest to a few miles south of Sisters. To Bend residents, the forest is the expanse of greenery lying beneath the Three Sisters peaks. Preserving the bulk of the forest as a nonprofit, while managing it for timber, resources and environmental purposes, has been discussed for years.
In 2007, Fidelity proposed trading 28,000 acres for the state’s permission to build 1,000 homes on 5,000 acres.
But the deal fell through late last year.
HB 2228 could revive those talks. Sponsored by Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, the bill would let Fidelity build on 640 acres of land, but the company would have to sell most of the rest of the forest, as well as a 14,000-acre plot in southern Deschutes County, to the Deschutes Land Trust to set up a community forest.
Fidelity is officially neutral on the bill. But after the vote, Fidelity lobbyist Linda Swearingen said that while the company wants more generous terms on details such as water rights for the development, the company is viewing the bill with cautious optimism.
“We’re hopeful that in the Senate we’ll be able to construct a bill that’s economically feasible,” she said. She added that the more generous the terms offered by the Legislature, “the less (the land) is going to cost the trust down the line, and the greater the chance that this will happen.”
While the dual-purpose bill helps the odds of a Skyline community forest, another part of the legislation would hurt the interests of the Metolian development group trying to build an “eco resort” in the Metolius basin.
Specifically, the second part of the bill would create a mechanism under which the would-be developers of the Metolian could take their concept out of the Metolius basin and move it to some other part of the state — specifically a forested area in a rural county.
Under another Clem bill, House Bill 3100, if the Metolian group is granted that ability to move its concept elsewhere, it triggers a hammer designed to encourage them to do so.
Specifically, the Metolian group’s right to build in the basin would drop from 35 dwellings to just two if it is granted the right to take its concept elsewhere under HB 2228.
The Metolian group, however, wants the rights to build more than two homes in the basin, and therefore opposed House Bill 2228.
Hasina Squires, a lobbyist for the group, called the House vote “unfortunate” and said that as far as building an “eco resort” elsewhere, the details of the bill “wouldn’t pencil out for any developer, including us.”
Though Whisnant, a supporter of the Metolian, opposed the bill on the House floor, Rep. Judy Stiegler, D-Bend, supported it, praising the bill as a “win-win” solution to the Skyline Forest situation.
The House bill now requires Senate approval and the signature of Gov. Ted Kulongoski before it becomes law.
Nick Budnick can be reached 503-566-2839 or at nbudnick@bendbulletin.com.
