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558 N. Main St.,
Prineville, OR 97754
Phone: 541.447.6205 |
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| Destination resort issue an issue for some |
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 | | Editorial cartoon by Ron Raasch | | Crook County is in the process of being mapped for possible sites of destination resorts ... |
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There's a land hunt going on in Crook County that has some unusual rules:
* The site must be three miles from irrigated farmland and high value crops
* It can't include big game habitat
* It can't be special resource lands like the buttes or BLM or Forest Service land
* It also can't be located with 24 air miles of the Portland Metro area, the urban growth boundaries of Salem, Eugene or Springfield.
When the search is over, by a process of elimination, the leftover lands will be those that could possibly be used for a destination resort. Some people seem to think of a destination resort as bad thing, but it could be exactly what we need in Crook County.
The owners of Redmond's Eagle Crest are paying to have the mapping of the county done at a cost somewhere in six-figure range. Obviously Eagle Crest management is not doing this study for the fun of it. They have a plan for a destination resort and think it might work in Crook County.
According to Crook County Court Judge Scott Cooper, that mapping process brings the available land in Crook County from about 1.9 million acres down to only 20,000 acres. He also said, "I would expect any destination resort area to be west of Powell Butte and south of Highway 126. It won't border
Red Cloud or any other subdivision, either."
The court has been holding hearings to create ordinances for the siting of destination resorts. It appears that many people in the community believe that Eagle Crest has applied for a permit to build such a resort. That is not the case; the court is simply establishing the laws that will allow such a facility, should a request be made. Once that is done there are hundreds of other hoops for the builders to jump through.
After talking to Eagle Crest's representative, Linda Swearingen, it appears that if everything works out there will ultimately be an application filed.
She also said, if a facility were to go into our county it would be one of the most land sensitive resorts ever built and that the Crook County residents would be consulted through the entire process. The project will likely have a western theme in keeping with the heritage of Crook County, she added.
This is great news for Crook County. The Eagle Crest people build beautiful properties that are assets to the communities they are in. Most of us have seen the excellent facility west of Redmond and the careful attention to detail and the care for the environment. The company's Running Y project in Klamath Falls is equally impressive.
Even more important than that is the impact such a facility could have on Crook County's continuing unemployment problem. The number of new jobs created is enormous. The construction phase could create more than a thousand jobs. Plus there is the annual multi-million dollar payroll of the hundreds of newly created jobs.
Destination resorts seem to be a dirty word to some people, but they are generally very good neighbors to the surrounding communities. The residents seldom have children to raise population of schools while contributing heavily to the schools funding by paying large property tax bills along with other fees and licenses for both the resort and the residences.
The people who move into and visit communities like this generally have a high discretionary income and support stores and services adding to the economy.
Judge Cooper pointed out that the five destination resorts in Deschutes County benefits that county more than all the industrial and commercial property does. "And the law requires that each resort has to be self-sufficient so there is no impact on local government," he explained.
Moving forward to see if a destination resort will work in Crook County seems like a very positive step forward. We encourage the public officials to approve the resort siting ordinance and encourage the building of a destination resort in Crook County.
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