 10/31/2018 UPDATE: Emails and Letters of Support accepted by the County Commissioners through November 5th! There was a terrific show of support Monday night - thanks to all who came out. However, if you did not get a chance to attend or speak at Monday night's County Commissioners special hearing, the comment period for written comments and testimony is open until Nov 5th at 4PM. To provide comments via email, send to: Cynthia.Smidt@deschutes.org Please include your name, mailing address and case file number Big Sky Hearing: 247-18-000745-A To send in a letter of support, write to: Ms. Cynthia Smidt, County Planner, 1300 NW Wall St., Bend, OR 97701. Please include your name, mailing address and case file number Big Sky Hearing: 247-18-000745-A In your communication, note you are in favor of the Bike Park and support special events, and request the County Commissioners overturn the hearing officer's stipulations 8+9 (dealing with excluding special events). Encourage your children to write letters explaining why they would like the bike park and special events such as bike clinics, birthday parties, races etc. that are important to them. Additional talking points addressing special events and competitions:
.............................................. 10/22/2018 - As many of you know, the Bend Park & Rec Dept is working to build an impressive Valmont-style bike park at Big Sky Park/Luke Damon Sports Complex on the east side of Bend at Hamby and Neff. We at COTA fully support this project because of the varied biking opportunities it brings to our community. BPRD details here. This project is at risk, however, because there's some resistance to the proposed bike park being used for races such as cyclocross or free ride competitions. Since it would be part of the Luke Damon Sports Complex, where soccer & BMX bike competitions are already held, it makes sense that the bike park should be utilized for bike races as well. The BPRD may rescind this proposed bike park if competitions aren't allowed to be held. If you want this, we NEED you to show up at the special hearing with the County Commissioners on October 29th, 6pm, at the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners Hearing Room at 1300 Wall St. Per COTA Board member Woody Keen: I can not stress enough how important it is for folks to show up at this public meeting and voice your support for the bike park. I have been involved in this process from the beginning, and we are so close to a world class bike park but we have this one last hurdle. The [Deschutes County\ Hearings Officer put a stipulation on the bike park of "no races and no special events" and the county commissioners are our last chance of getting that overturned (and moving forward with the bike park). BRPD has noted they have no interest in building a million dollar plus bike park that can not host special events etc. such as cyclocross races. Please show up for this. You SHOWING UP at the Oct 29th hearing is most effective. At the hearing, any new information or comments can come in, and people can speak and present new or old information. However, there will be a 3 minute time-limit for each person. When requesting to speak at a meeting before the Board of Commissioners, they have sign-in sheets for each person wanting to speak and these will need to be filled out before the hearing starts. You can also have one person represent a group of people or club. The sheets are submitted to the Board secretary. Keep in mind, the Board of Commissioners will have access to all the previously submitted comments. If there are repeat comments, that’s okay. However, it might help to focus the comments on the county code that the Board of Commissioners will be reviewing in this case (see below for PDF documentation). Also below is the first decision by the Hearings Officer showing the state and local codes that were previously reviewed. The Park District appealed this first decision based how the decision was approved. They have targeted their appeal to specific issues in the decision. Therefore, it is these issues that will be the main focus. However, this does not mean they won’t focus on other areas of the County Code or state law. There a several neighbors in opposition and their issues will be raised and addressed by the Board, if necessary. If you can't make the meeting, then send an EMAIL voicing your support for the bike park AND its ability to host occasional bike-related competitions (how it benefits Bendites of all ages, local businesses, etc) to: Cynthia Smidt, Associate Planner of Deschutes County Community Development, email here. *You must provide the following:
11/30/2019 10:47:00 am
This big sky park project is in need of a big fund. That’s why I am not sure if only one community will work together to come up with this. The fund will not be enough and the manpower might not be enough too. I believe that the project was made fro a good cause, but they need the support of the government for them to push through. This one serves as a huge challenger for them, but I am pretty sure that they will be able to overcome it as soon possible. Perhaps, they just need to work double time for it. Comments are closed.
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Singletracks podcast featuring Emmy Andrews 
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Emma Maaranen's article about Funner |
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