A4 THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022
Proposal to rezone 710 acres moves forward
BY BRENNA VISSER
CO Media Group
A proposal to rezone 710
acres of north Deschutes
County farmland so it can be
used for rural housing is one
step closer to reality.
Earlier this month, a public
hearings officer decided the
proposal meets criteria to be
rezoned, and recommended
approval by the Deschutes
County Commission.
The hearings officer ulti-
mately agreed the majority of
the soils on the land were poor
enough to not be considered
profitable farm land.
The 710 acres of land,
which sits near Northwest
Coyner Avenue, is surrounded
by farmland, federal land and
some nonfarm dwellings in
rural subdivisions.
The applicant, 710 Prop-
erties LLC, is registered to
Robert Turner and Charles
Thomas III. They are seeking
to change the land to RR-10,
which means one home per
every 10 acres.
The vision is to create an
off-grid, solar powered com-
munity of 70 rural, residential
homes, according to Mark
Stockamp, a representative
123RF
for the project. The project is
being financed by Dale Stock-
amp, Thomas, and Turner,
who are all associated with
710 Properties LLC and Cen-
tral Oregonians, he said.
Mark Stockamp said there
is one home on the property,
and that it is set up to be off-
grid, which inspired the idea
to make a solar-powered res-
idential development. “We
want to create a very low-im-
pact community,” he said.
The proposed zone change
has drawn ire from groups like
Central Oregon LandWatch
and neighbors to the area,
who fear whatever develop-
ment the zone change allows
would draw down ground-
water amid a longstanding
drought and disturb wildlife
and nearby farming opera-
tions.
Carol Macbeth, an attorney
with LandWatch, said the or-
ganization is disappointed in
the decision and will request
commissioners reverse the de-
cision.
LandWatch argues the
property is agricultural land
as a matter of law and should
be protected for farm use, not
turned into “suburban sprawl.”
Macbeth said the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture, the
Oregon Department of Fish
Travel
Wilson
Continued from A1
Continued from A1
Through October, Alle-
giant Airlines has suspended
its nonstop flights from Red-
mond to Las Vegas or Mesa,
Ariz., but there is one to
Phoenix from Redmond, he
said.
When visitors come to
the airport they’ll find a
third TSA line to help move
along travelers during peak
early morning and mid-day
flights, Bass said. In addition,
during the pandemic, the air-
port added 500 more parking
stalls.
TSA is looking to hire
additional security officers
to staff the screening lines,
Dankers said. In fact, the
TSA and WorkSource Or-
egon have partnered for a
hiring event from 8 a.m. to
3 p.m. Wednesday, according
to a prepared statement. TSA
is offering a starting salary of
$18.59 an hour and $1,000
hiring bonus for successful
applicants.
Nationwide, TSA screens
Wilson claimed self defense,
saying the trio initiated the
violence and at several points
called him a racial epithet.
One of the victims, Bates,
can be heard on police body
cam footage calling Wilson
the N-word.
A number of bar patrons
and police officers testified at
trial last month, as did Wilson
and the three victims.
In arguing for a lighter
sentence, defense attorney
Katherine Griffith noted the
victims’ injuries were much
less serious than in a typi-
cal Measure 11 assault case.
The victims received cuts in
various places, but none of
them required hospitalization;
they testified to treating their
wounds at home with ban-
dages and super glue. One of
them, Gannon, spoke of a scar
remaining on his right arm,
which Griffith said was far
from disfiguring.
Griffith argued the melee
was essentially one act, not
Ukraine
Continued from A1
What shook her into action
is when her father called in
a panic and told her to pack
a bag and leave Chernivtsi at
once.
“He was so scared, because
he heard the bombs and he
saw the war planes…he was
so scared. I was not,” Kristina
said.
Heeding her father’s words,
she grabbed documents, elec-
tronic devices and anything
she knew she couldn’t live
without, knowing she may
never return.
Soon afterward, her uncle
picked up her and her sister and
took them to a family home in
a small village called Nedaboy-
ivsy, about a half an hour from
the Romanian border.
The sisters knew their fam-
ily home was the safest place
to be, at least then. The village
was far enough from where
most of the war was taking
place and there was no major
infrastructure, airports or mil-
itary bases for the Russians to
target.
“They don’t have reason to
attack our village,” Kristina
said. “It is a more safe place,
and we have a basement in
our house.”
Their journey to Redmond
Andy Tullis
The sign that greets passengers at Redmond Airport. (Andy Tullis/
The Bulletin, file)
an average of 2.1 million
travelers a day. Redmond
averages about 1,500 a day,
Dankers said.
“Over the past several
months, we have been pre-
paring for a busy summer
travel season. We are looking
forward to providing a top-
notch screening experience
for passengers — both in
terms of excellent customer
took them first to Poland. Af-
ter a delayed flight in Poland
due to a blizzard, they were
able to fly out 24 hours later,
reaching the Netherlands.
From there the group flew
across the Atlantic to Bogota,
Colombia. From South Amer-
ica, they flew to Mexico City
and then to Tijuana near the
border with California.
Because of the sisters’ visa
status they were not permitted
to fly directly to the U.S., so
the group had to find a differ-
ent flight path, and then cross
into the U.S. at the border with
Mexico. At the time, it was
common for Ukrainians flee-
ing the war to cross into the
United States via Mexico, and
the group figured they would
take their chances before it
was too late.
In late April, the United
States announced Ukrainian
refugees were prohibited from
crossing from Mexico as part
of a new policy to cut down
on the number of Ukrainians
seeking to enter the country
via the informal route on the
southern border, the Associ-
ated Press reported.
After masquerading as
tourists and then making con-
tact with volunteers stationed
in Mexico to assist refugees
from Ukraine, the sisters
crossed into California via
service and delivering the
highest level of security,” said
TSA acting Federal Security
Director Kathleen McDonald
in a prepared statement. “Ev-
ery traveler can help us carry
out our responsibilities by
arriving early and prepared
for the security screening ex-
perience.”
█
Reporter: 541-633-2117,
sroig@bendbulletin.com
Calexico.
Once successfully in the
United States, they were able
to arrange transportation to
Sacramento, where the two
sisters have relatives. After
staying with their relatives for
a couple of weeks, they made
their final trip up to Redmond
where the two sisters are cur-
rently being hosted at Steeves’
family home.
“Our parents are happy we
are in a safe place,” Kristina
said. “They miss us, but they
are glad we are here.”
Kristina said she misses
Ukraine, her family and her
friends, and is not entirely
sure when she and her sister
will be able to return, as the
war is ongoing.
Ira and Kristina said they
want people in Oregon to re-
alize the war is still happening
and is in fact getting worse.
They said in the beginning
many people talked about
the war, but now that months
have past, it is not discussed as
much, which leads people to
believe the situation has im-
proved.
It has not, they said. In fact,
many innocent people are still
dying. People are running out
of food and water, and many
are unable to leave the coun-
try, they said.
In the meantime, while they
wait for work visas, they are
taking advantage of spring in
Bend and exploring some of
Oregon’s bountiful outdoor
beauty. Some things they love
about the United States so far is
the coffee, and the grand vari-
ety of different types of cuisine
available. They also like how
nice people are, they added.
█
jsiess@bendbulletin.com,
541-617-7820
and Wildlife and the Oregon
Department of Land Conser-
vation and Development all
took the unusual step of op-
posing the proposal, explain-
ing in detail why converting
the land in this rural farming
community to a subdivision is
against the law.
“LandWatch is particularly
disappointed in the Hearings
Officer’s decision because
neighboring ranchers testified
that they would be interested
in purchasing the property or
otherwise using it to expand
their ranch, and explained
in detail why the property is
well-suited for ranching, an
agricultural use. Speculation
in farm and ranch land arti-
ficially increases the price of
farmland until farmland is
priced out of reach for actual
farmers and ranchers,” Mac-
beth wrote in a statement.
Stockamp said he and the
team behind the project un-
derstand the concern about
groundwater. Residential use,
however, uses less water than
an irrigation well would use
for farming, which the land is
currently zoned for, he said.
An analysis the backers of the
project have paid for showed
development will interfere
with nearby wells by less than
1/2 foot.
“We’re Central Orego-
nians…we are very aware of
the water shortage and the
current drought,” he said.
If the zone change is ap-
proved, Stockamp said the
team has a plan to improve
the land to take out juvenile
juniper trees, which domi-
nate the landscape and crowd
out food for mule deer, like
bunch grass. A consultant also
has advised ways to develop a
wildlife corridor in conjunc-
tion with residential develop-
ment to help mule deer mi-
grate through the area.
“The public can generally
think land is best if it’s left
alone and nothing happens to
it, and I feel like with (the con-
sultant’s) recommendations
there’s a lot of ways to improve
it,” Stockamp said.
A work session to discuss
the proposed zone change
is scheduled for June 29, ac-
cording to Deschutes County
Community Development Di-
rector Peter Gutowsky.
A public hearing before the
commissioners has yet to be
set.
three separate violent acts for
which Wilson should be pun-
ished separately.
None of the victims at-
tended the hearing.
At sentencing hearings,
judges have more latitude to
hear about a defendant’s prior
criminal behavior. The infa-
mous case of Michelle “Misty”
Largo was discussed by prose-
cutor Alison Filo.
“This is a defendant who
out of custody has engaged in
extraordinarily violent con-
duct,” Filo told the judge.
In 1992, Wilson and four
other men were arrested in
the death of Largo, 18. Pros-
ecutors say she was tied to a
wheelchair with speaker wire
and tortured before being
stabbed to death and left in a
culvert.
In his first trial, Wilson was
convicted of first-degree mur-
der and sentenced to death.
That conviction was over-
turned on appeal, and the next
trial resulted in a hung jury.
On the eve of Wilson’s third
trial, he accepted a plea deal
involving admissions of guilt
to manslaughter and kidnap-
ping. He was released from
prison in 2013.
Griffith countered that Wil-
son’s initial conviction for mur-
der was overturned on appeal
because the charge did not ac-
curately reflect Wilson’s role in
the incident, which she said is
closer to that of an “assistant.”
Filo asked the judge for
consecutive sentencing, argu-
ing that each victim deserved
recognition.
On Monday, Miller opted to
run Wilson’s three assault sen-
tences consecutively.
█
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com
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