Despite a dead raccoon with a hateful sign left at the door of Mayor Ed Fitch on Monday, a councilor with broken ribs and pneumonia and another with COVID-19, the Redmond City Council continued business as usual at its Tuesday council meeting.

Council discussed significant developments coming to east Redmond including Oasis Village, the Mountain View recreational vehicle site, CORE3, 21st Street, a potential county site for RVs and a multi-use path into town.

Council also unanimously approved changes to its methodology for collecting water system development charges and increased fees to accommodate growth in the city. The changes will take effect on July 1, 2023.

East area infrastructure

According to John Roberts, Redmond deputy city manager, site planning and engineering are moving forward for the proposed Oasis Village transitionary shelter.

Oasis Village could provide up to 30 or 40 small units to help house Central Oregon residents struggling to find a place to live. Each unit will have enough space to accommodate one or two individuals.

The project recently received nearly $1 million in funding from Gov. Tina Kotek’s executive order in January declaring a state of emergency over homelessness. The funding requires Oasis to build 15 units by Jan. 10, 2024.

“There’s a very tight deadline to get these units in the ground and available for residency,” Roberts said. “We are working in earnest to get this going.”

According to Bob Bohac, president of Oasis Village, the Heart of Oregon Corps and Redmond High School construction students are working to build units. Bohac expects the required 15 units by about November, which will leave them with time to finish on-site.

Bohac said the main focus will be on staffing and training.

“This is truly a community project,” said James Cook, vice-chair of the Oasis Village board of directors.

Additionally, Oasis Village will neighbor a proposed RV site hosted by Mountain View Community Development.

While potential funding is still to be fully fleshed out, the proposed timeline sees 15 RV sites with utilities by July 2024, 45 sites by January 2025 and a possible expansion with permanent rentable units in 2026.

Roberts said hitting 15 sites by July 2024 is “pretty ambitious” but possible.

According to Rick Russell, executive director of Mountain View Community Development, the RV site will be an opportunity for those struggling with homelessness to move up and eventually find something more permanent. The sites will have utilities and tenants will pay reduced rates for a spot.

“We’re really creating rungs on the ladder out of homelessness,” Russell said. “We view this as transitional still, so this is not an ending place for anyone but one more rung on the ladder to help them move up.”

Additionally, Deschutes County has proposed another, and much larger, site next door for RVs with no public utilities connected. However, the concept is still in its early stages.

“(It’s a) very very preliminary concept,” Roberts said.

According to Fitch, the site would be a place to direct those relocated from a proposed land swap to expand the Deschutes County Fairgrounds.

CORE3

Next to these projects, the city is preparing to welcome a 300-acre training, readiness and emergency response center dubbed CORE3

“This is a very big project,” Roberts said. “If you had to concoct one of the most complicated land-use applications in the entire state, this would be it.”

The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council is leading the charge on the project, but the City of Redmond, Deschutes County and every law enforcement and emergency response agency in Central Oregon are also involved.

According to Roberts, the idea for CORE3 is predicated on the forecasted Cascadia earthquake.

According to The Oregon Department of Emergency Management, the Cascadia Subduction zone could trigger a potential 9.0+ magnitude earthquake and a tsunami reaching up to 100 feet high. The earthquake and tsunami would impact much of Oregon west of I-5 and leave the state without services and assistance for at least two weeks.

The department predicts there is a 37 percent chance the subduction zone could cause a 7.1+ magnitude earthquake in the next 50 years.

Sitting outside the impact zone, Redmond and CORE3 could be a centerpiece of the state’s response mechanism.

“Redmond may be the focal point for the entire state,” said Fitch.