Sustainable City Year Reports 2022-23 (Sisters)

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    Connecting Sisters, Oregon
    (University of Oregon, 2023) Schlossberg, Marc; Lee, Grace
    Situated in the northwest pocket of Deschutes County, Sisters includes varied outdoor recreation options, beautiful scenery, and top tier hiking and mountain biking trails. The city’s thriving downtown is bisected by East Cascade Avenue, which bustles with economic activity and serves as a throughway to Redmond, Bend, and central Oregon. The street is often congested with vehicular traffic, which keeps speeds slow and makes crossing for most pedestrians relatively easy, if not slightly uncomfortable. Crossing this primary street by bike, however, is more difficult, especially for less confident cyclists such as youth and the elderly. Parallel streets to East Cascade Avenue also enjoy robust commercial uses, contain extensive car parking for the entire downtown region, and run the risk of acting as alternative ‘through streets’ for motorists trying to avoid East Cascade. A downtown bypass road to the north of East Cascade Avenue, primarily for diverting freight trucks from the city center, is being planned and developed, and will likely reduce truck traffic through the heart of Sisters, making viewsheds of pedestrians and cyclists crossing East Cascade Avenue slightly easier, though congested conditions are likely to be the norm due to the popularity of Sisters as a regional destination and ‘on the way’ between central Oregon and the more populous regions to the west. Population and housing growth are expected to continue over the next decade, putting pressure on Sisters to both accommodate new residents and maintain a high level of community livability. Sisters Elementary School will soon be moving to join a middle and high school on a single campus area on the southwest side of town. New housing developments are occurring throughout the entire Sisters community and many students live in outlying communities in the region as well, creating automobile traffic to the school and through the community during school drop-off and pick up. Because of its small size, travelling within the city is relatively easy to do by foot, bike, or driving, though there could be more to explicitly support people on bike both in terms of infrastructure connectivity design and in encouraging its use. And with better support for cycling, both residents and tourists to the community stand to benefit. Below are some of the key ideas that can help move the community in this direction.
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    Co-Living for the Changing Family: Thriving through Sharing in Expandable Buildings
    (University of Oregon, 2023) Cheng, Nancy Yen-Wen; Gottlin, Alexandra
    The city of Sisters identified the need for 1,100 housing units to accommodate its 2041 projected population growth and is exploring “efficiency measures” as an alternative to expanding its urban growth boundary. Final year Architecture students studied the situation and considered contemporary approaches to how people are choosing to live as the definition of “family” continues to evolve. As innovative design thinking is needed for new household types, students looked at how homes and communities can adapt to changing household needs. They envisioned inclusive places where people can thrive through mutual support and sharing.
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    Reimagining Housing Options for the Sisters Elementary School Site
    (University of Oregon, 2023) Alexander-Jaffe, Esme; Franco Zavala, Melanie; O’Leary, Ceara
    University of Oregon Architecture students proposed site designs and adaptive reuse ideas for the existing Sisters Elementary School and outdoor recreational uses and affordable housing. Student housing proposals fell into four main categories: 1) Housing on top of the school 2) Housing on the west side of the site 3) Housing in groups of clusters 4) Housing as larger volumes Students worked together and independently to improve the quality of life and community in Sisters, Oregon, through design. Students focused on creating spaces for future residents that would serve a range of family sizes and types. Students also proposed outdoor spaces that are designed to serve the community in a variety of ways, mostly through recreational activities such as sports. Proposed designs considered the future Highway 20 roundabout that will be built adjacent to the site, which will slow traffic down as it travels through the central part of Sisters. Students also proposed site layouts that will better accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists as they travel through and around the site. To formulate their designs, students started with case studies, diagrams, and process models. They also completed a detailed site analysis, which included a field trip to the site and the city of Sisters. This helped the students visualize and understand the site, the community, and the community’s needs. Students also researched relevant demographics within Sisters, Oregon, including the school district since their project focus included adaptive reuse of the current elementary school and affordable housing for existing and incoming teachers. Every student designed distinct details within their designs, such as splash pads, a community amphitheater, gardens, and unique connections from the proposed housing to the community spaces. Students strived to reflect the current culture of the community in their designs while adding to the existing beauty of Sisters, Oregon. This report summarizes the three different housing approaches while highlighting details within some of the designs for the affordable housing, adaptive reuse and site design in Sisters, Oregon.
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    Explore Sisters: Strategic Plan
    (University of Oregon, 2023) Chase, Eleana; Pernell, Ryan; Shocair, Hibo; Bosworth, Austin; Mason, Dyana; Fracchia, Elena; Thompson, Kim
    This product is designed for Explore Sisters as a client of the University of Oregon’s Nonprofit Management Consultancy capstone course in Spring of 2023 in partnership with the University of Oregon’s Sustainable Cities Year Program. A team of four graduate students consulted for ten weeks by interviewing similar destination management organizations (DMO), facilitating a board visioning workshop, conducting literature reviews and analyzing relevant data to provide customized recommendations and resources to best develop and sustain the organization. Explore Sisters was established in 2022 to promote local tourism and recreation opportunities in Sisters. With its recent inception, building a solid foundation to promote long-term sustainability will be key to the organization's success. This document contains three strategic goals and subsequent action steps for Explore Sisters to consider when presenting their strategic plan to the city. Given its recent establishment, the steps provided are scaled to the capacity that Explore Sisters currently possesses.
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    Financing Affordable Housing Subsidies in Sisters, Oregon: Creative Options and Evaluation of Potential Municipal Revenue-Generating Activities
    (University of Oregon, 2022) Skawski, Chris; Lewis, Rebecca; College of Design, University of Oregon
    This report contains the collected work of graduate student groups in PPPM 629: Public Budget Administration over the course of fall term 2022. These student groups conducted research to evaluate and forecast productivity of revenue generating activities for consideration by the city of Sisters to augment their Affordable Housing Reserve Fund. The revenue sources presented in this report were selected for their productivity, or other factors related to the tax or revenue generating activity that make them particularly attractive options. Revenue sources are presented and described, forecasts for expected revenue are presented, and analysis offered for City staff. Major highlights of this work include: Each revenue source has tradeoffs. Some that are particularly productive may have negative impacts on economic activity within the City. Sources that may be particularly well-aligned with the end goal of raising affordable housing funds may not be especially productive. Student recommendations include adopting the Construction Excise Tax because of its low administrative burden and generally strong productivity estimates. Several of the revenue recommendations raise questions that the City may not be able to answer alone. It may be that exploring these options fully involves engaging nearby jurisdictions. No single strategy will solve the issue of housing affordability. City staff and leaders may need to mix and match revenue-generating activities to create a comprehensive strategy for long-term revenue.
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    A New Future for the Sisters Elementary School Site
    (University of Oregon, 2022) Betros, Rosemary; Rola, Katherine E.; Banks, Megan; Brown, Anne; Knudson, Kaarin; Schlossberg, Marc; College of Design, University of Oregon
    Over fall term 2022, Community and Regional Planning graduate students worked with the City of Sisters to design a research based redevelopment proposal for the Sisters Elementary School and Sisters School District administration building site. Students analyzed potential opportunities and challenges of revitalizing these two adjoining properties through three different lenses: 1) age friendly neighborhoods; 2) adaptive reuse of preexisting structures, and 3) a community and recreation center. Despite different focus areas, as the teams moved through the planning process, they sought to incorporate what they understood to be community values: connection, livability, accessibility, equity, and safety. With their focus areas and these values in mind, they organized their proposals around the overarching themes of connectivity, built spaces (especially housing), and open and green spaces. The teams imagined the site in a way that would sustain Sisters’ strong sense of pride and community as the city continues to grow in the future. They also wanted to encourage healthy lifestyles for Sisters’ residents and ensure that people of all ages, incomes, and abilities could access the site safely. This report describes the information that the teams gathered and analyzed to create their designs, details each team’s site proposal, and offers ideas for implementation.