Making Bend a College Town (apartments, restaurant, campus)

[BendLocal]

Board OKs buying landfill for OSU-Cascades campus expansion - KTVZ

With former pumice mine, creates a 128-acre campus

The Oregon State University Board of Trustees Friday authorized OSU President Ed Ray to complete negotiations with Deschutes County to purchase 72 acres of landthat will expand the footprint of the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend.

The land is a Deschutes County landfill and is located adjacent to the university campus. The landfill site, when combined with the current 10-acre campus and an adjacent 46-acre site owned by OSU, will create a 128-acre campus.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

128 acres makes a lot more sense for a college campus. I hope with the extra room they will now put in more than 30 parking spaces.

[BendLocal]

I'm skeptical that a 128 acre campus in that location makes sense unless they build enough on campus student housing for all of their students. Otherwise it becomes another large commuter campus creating even more cross town traffic.

[redguard57]

I want to see how they fill what is essentially a sinkhole.

It's going to take them decades to pay that back.

[BendLocal]

OSU- Cascades buys demo landfill for $1 - KTVZ

OSU-Cascades gets the adjacent demolition dump from Deschutes County for $1, but faces an estimated $43 million cleanup cost.

[BendLocal]

https://www.ktvz.com/news/osu-budget...ork/1082791396

Trustees also approved spending $13.4 million for work to reclaim a former pumice mine and a landfill adjacent to the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend. The board previously approved buying the property, which will be used to expand the 10-acre campus. The reclamation project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2020.

The budget also will be used to construct a site for construction of OSU-Cascades’ next academic building, as well as preparation for a campus entrance, roads and parking required for the building. The reclamation plan is in keeping with the OSU-Cascades campus master plan approved by the city of Bend.

[texasdiver]

College town?

At their current rate of expansion, OSU-Cascades will not even reach the 1/2 the size of WSU-Vancouver in 10 years and trust me, Vancouver WA is most definitely NOT a college town. Half the people in Vancouver probably don't even know that WSU-Vancouver even exists. WSU-Vancouver has a 351 acre campus and about 3500 students at present.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washin...sity_Vancouver

OSU-Cascades has a 10 acre campus which is about the size of the average urban elementary school. And they are talking about $13 million to reclaim a 40 acre pummice mine and $43 million to reclaim a 70 acre landfill that will probably cost $100 million to remediate before they are all done given how these things usually work. And that's before they even start building new buildings.

The actual comparable college town east of the cascades would be Central Washington University in Ellensburg which has about 12,000 students on a 380 acre campus. Bend is a couple of generations away from even competing with that.

[BendLocal]

Bend already has a sprinkle of the cool college town vibe. Some of it is because of the younger tourists and residents but there is also a college presence that is often overlooked.

COCC has close to 9,000 students working on credits with an average age of 25.6. And they also have close to 8,000 non credit students.

https://www.cocc.edu/about/cocc-quick-facts.aspx

OSU Cascades saw a 33% increase in enrollment and is now at 1200+. My hunch is they will have no problem filling whatever space they are able to build.

https://osucascades.edu/about/fall-enrollment

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

Bend already has a sprinkle of the cool college town vibe. Some of it is because of the younger tourists and residents but there is also a college presence that is often overlooked.

COCC has close to 9,000 students working on credits with an average age of 25.6. And they also have close to 8,000 non credit students.

https://www.cocc.edu/about/cocc-quick-facts.aspx

OSU Cascades saw a 33% increase in enrollment and is now at 1200+. My hunch is they will have no problem filling whatever space they are able to build.

https://osucascades.edu/about/fall-enrollment

Oh, I think there is no doubt that plenty of young people in Oregon would be happy to attend 4-year college in Bend (compared to alternatives in La Grande, K-Falls, and Ashland for example). I think it is something that is greatly needed. I just don't see this state pulling it off. And there are too many vested interests opposed. What I am personally skeptical of is whether or not:

1. The state will actually make the investment in expanding higher education that it will actually require to establish a real competitive university east of the cascades. They are raising tuition and cutting budgets at the existing universities. I don't see where the money comes from, compared to say WA where they have invested billions in new branch campuses around the state. Building a new university is a massive investment, not something you do nickel and dime.

2. The pervasive NIMBYs in Bend who will resist the urbanization that a serious new university will bring to that area.

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

2. The pervasive NIMBYs in Bend who will resist the urbanization that a serious new university will bring to that area.

There was some local opposition but it wasn't enough to keep the city from approving the 128 acre master plan.