2 Wednesday, March 11, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Grappling with growth in Sisters »Pajama Party9 By Cory Misley Sisters City Manager Nicole Mardell Principal Planner The Sisters Elementary School kindergarten staged a performance of “Pajama Party” last week in the school gym. The young actors enjoyed their time on stage. PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. To the Editor: Last night, Monday, March 2, I came home from the movies to find my daughter upset. It seems like through a Facebook post she found out my dog was missing. It turned out alright, someone down the street found her and brought her home. Now the rest of the story: It seems the gate in the corner facing St. Helens was open and neither of us had opened it. Noel didn9t have a collar or tags on when she was brought home. I found the collar the next morning about 40 feet from the open gate, unhooked. There was no way she could have got it open or off by herself. I have been a responsible pet-owner, my dogs go to the vet on a regular basis and I had a fence built to keep them out of the street. They have a doggie door to get in and out and the yard is theirs. Both my dogs run out and mostly greet everyone who walks past. My greatest fear is someone opened the gate and took her. Did she get away from you when you stopped to take off her collar? It was right in the driveway behind my car. Did you think she was just so cute you had to have her? Did you think you could love her more than I do? She was my Christmas present in 2017 to replace a dog that I had for over 18 years. I got her through potty training and broke her of shoe-chewing and dragging any article of clothing she found out the doggy door and into the yard. She has been my com- panion and best friend for over 2 years, and if I had not got her back this would be such a different letter. So, if the one who tried to take her reads this, know she is chipped, and the vet knows her. And also know that I am putting locks on my gates to keep her safe. A six-foot chain length fence should have discouraged you; it didn9t, but locks on all the gates should. It really bothers me that I should have to do that in Sisters to keep her safe. But I will. She is part of my family. Shirley Miller Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Partly Cloudy Sunny PM Showers Snow Showers Snow Showers Partly Cloudy 57/27 55/29 54/24 34/14 31/14 38/17 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Graphic Design: Jess Draper & Lisa May Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Kema Clark Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $55; six months (or less), $30. First-class postage: one year, $95; six months, $65. Published Weekly. ©2020 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Land-use planning in the U.S. began in the late 1800s at the intersection of three vocations: public health, architecture, and social work, as all three groups had concerns about the arrange- ment of cities and the poten- tial impacts of their growth. In weighing all of these interests, the process of land-use planning was cre- ated to ensure thought- ful, orderly, and consistent review of construction proj- ects. Zoning was estab- lished for public health and quality of life purposes, to separate industrial parks from residential areas, and to ensure an adequate mix of uses 4 homes, commer- cial services and retail, park space, and economic devel- opment land were all bal- anced. Development codes containing requirements for materials, building layout, and spacing were put into place to ensure a standard for development was set. The public hearing process was created so members of the public could verify that these standards were being met and properly applied. Planning has evolved immensely since that time. In 1973, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill No. 100, requiring all cities and counties in Oregon to participate in a state-wide land-use system with spe- cific goals and policies. One of the most notable require- ments of this program is to concentrate development into cities with a defined boundary in which growth can occur, so that rural lands containing significant natu- ral resources and working farm and forest land can be preserved. This drew a legal line in the sand around cities, prohibiting urban sprawl with state oversight. One consequence of this program is the pressure on cities of all sizes to grow. In Sisters there are two arenas in which land-use planning exists. The first is application review (i.e. the recent Three Winds Master Plan), a responsive process at the intersection between individual property rights, for an owner to be able to reasonably develop land that they own, and the legal guidelines that the City has adopted in its development code. When an application is submitted, the codes that are in place cannot be changed. This is known as the