Throughout Bend’s Urban Growth Boundary planning process, LandWatch has been the leading public interest group advocating for a limited expansion to prevent urban sprawl, encourage cost-effective growth, protect wildlife habitat, and foster affordable housing.

Enjoy a sunset dinner, drinks, and a raffle to benefit Central Oregon's forests and high desert, rivers and springs, wildlife habitat, and well-designed communities.

Bend is experiencing a severe affordable housing crisis. The city's proposed Urban Growth Boundary increases the diversity of housing choices that people are allowed to build, which could help boost our "missing middle" housing supply.

Well-informed citizens know that whether the city grows in population or not, we will only maintain our quality of life if we plan for the future thoughtfully.

Check out this great In My View piece that was published in The Bulletin earlier this year. Traffic is increasing in Bend and there are many well-documented ways to decrease traffic congestion, including using land use as a transportation solution.

On August 9th and August 17th we will be giving an update on Bend's UGB proposal.

A new report shows the extreme rate at which we are losing natural areas to development in the American West.

Listen to a radio interview with Central Oregon LandWatch's Advocacy Programs Manage about housing affordability and Bend's Urban Growth Boundary.

This afternoon the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) Steering Committee, which consists of the Bend City Council and representatives from the Bend Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners, approved a package of recommendations for Bend’s UGB expansion and associated growth management policies.                 

In its reporting for the last meeting of the Citizen's Advisory Committee for the Central Westside Plan, which aims to emphasize biking, walking and mixed-use projects in areas that are currently nonresidential, The Bulletin interviewed LandWatch's Moey Newbold, a member of the committee.

First time homebuyers are not necessarily interested in high density cookie cutter homes in the new developments on the outskirts of town. Living closer to work and access to amenities are modern values often overlooked. 

Can the momentum of sprawl be halted? America's zoning laws, intended to control the baneful effects of industry, have mutated, in the view of one architecture critic, into a system that corrodes civic life, outlaws the human scale, defeats tradition and authenticity, and confounds our yearning for an everyday environment worthy of our affection.