Development Code and Sign Code Updates
The Bend Code regulates land use, building standards, and signage in Bend, adapting over time to meet community goals and legal requirements.
The Bend Development Code is a set of regulations that guide development and land use within Bend. It mainly applies to private property and covers zoning, land use, building heights, setbacks, and other aspects of urban planning—essentially what can be built in Bend. The Bend Development Code implements the Bend Comprehensive Plan.
The Sign Code, which lives in Chapter 9.50 of the Municipal Code, regulate signs that are visible from streets or which are visible from one site to another. The code provides reasonable regulations for the design, construction, placement and maintenance of signs to protect the public health, safety and general welfare of the community. The intent is not to regulate content, only the number, type, location, height and size of signs.
The Bend Development Code changes over time when the Bend City Council adopts new policies to meet community-driven Council goals, such as reducing barriers to building housing or supporting sustainable development, as well as when state adopts new rules. Due to changes that occur in the City’s land use policies, as well as evolving requirements of State and Federal law, the Development Code is dynamic and regularly updated.
Active Code Updates
These are proposed amendments that will be reviewed by and voted on by the City Council. The official public engagement process is ongoing and public comments are being received until the record is closed.
Short-Term Rental Code Update
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20250659
- Staff Contact: Pauline Hardie
- Stage in the process:
- Planning Commission Work Session: February 9, 2026
- Planning Commission Hearing (type III-CC Quasi-Judicial Recommendation to City Council): February 23, 2026
Proposed amendments to BDC 3.6.500, Short-Term Rentals. The amendment would modify how the Neighborhood Commercial (CN) zoned properties are regulated by requiring STRs to meet the standards applicable to their underlying Comprehensive Plan land use designation of Medium Density Residential (RM). Specifically, the amendment would require:
- Type II administrative review with public notice,
- Compliance with the 500‑foot separation standard, and
- A limitation of one STR per property.
Tree Code Amendments
- CityView File number: PLTEXT20250658
- Staff Contact: Pauline Hardie
- Stage in the process:
- Planning Commission Work Session: January 12, 2026
- Planning Commission Hearing (Recommendation to City Council): January 26, 2026
- City Council Public Hearing and First Reading: March 4, 2026
- City Council Second Reading: March 18, 2026
- The amendments to the BDC propose the following:
- Add exemptions to the tree preservation requirements.
- Replacement Trees: Allow mitigation replacement trees to count towards the 40% parking lot tree canopy required by the Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) rules.
- Allow a deferral of installation of replacement trees under certain conditions.
- Create a discretionary path for on-site root protection zones.
Recently Adopted Code Amendments
Below is a list of code changes that were recently adopted by the Bend City Council and are now in effect.
Bend Development Code amendment to BDC Table 2.2.300, Permitted and Conditional Uses, to prohibit new auto-dependent uses in the Convenience Commercial (CC) zoning district.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20240514
- Ordinance No. 2519
- Adopted: December 18, 2024
- Effective Date: January 17, 2025
Bend Development Code amendments to implement certain Oregon state laws and legislation to facilitate housing development. The amendments also eliminated the requirement to apply for building permits in advance of, or concurrently with, a Middle Housing Land Division application, they removed the local option to request that City Council hear appeals on quasi-judicial development applications and the option for Council to call up and review a decision of the Hearings Officer or Planning Commission, and they supported development of townhomes, cottage developments and shared courts.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20250128
- Ordinance No. 2515
- Adopted: December 4, 2024
- Effective Date: January 3, 2025
Bend Code amendment to update the boundary of Sign District 6 based on recent changes to the Bend Parkway alignment.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20240451
- Ordinance No. 2513
- Adopted: November 20, 2024
- Effective Date: December 20, 2024
Bend Development Code amendment to implement the Oregon Model Flood Hazard Management Ordinance.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20240438
- Ordinance No. 2510
- Adopted: November 6, 2024
- Effective Date: December 6, 2024
Bend Development code amendments related to tree preservation and street tree and planter strip landscaping requirements.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20230178
- Ordinance No. 2503
- Adopted: July 17, 2024
- Effective Date: August 16, 2024
- CityView File number: PLTEXT20250226
- Staff Contact: Amy Barry and Kim Voos
- Stage in the process (public hearing, etc): Approved
- A high-level summary includes:
- Provide more flexible standards for the number, location, and duration allowed for portable signs such as A-frames
- Allow murals to be painted by hand directly on a flat display structure secured to a building’s exterior wall
- Allow some types of electronic signs such as for drive-throughs and portions of freestanding signs
- Increase in the height allowed for wall signs
- Clarification as to what is counted toward maximum sign area and how it is allocated for multiple signs
- CityView File number: PLTEXT20250128
- Staff Contact: Pauline Hardie
- Stage in the process (public hearing, etc): Adopted on June 18, 2025 and will go into effect on July 18, 2025
- A high-level summary includes:
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- A second kitchen in a dwelling unit.
- Up to two accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on a lot or parcel.
- A new housing option called “rowhouses” in the RL, RS, RM and RM-10 Districts.
- Minor amendments to BDC Chapter 3.8, Development Alternatives.
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The Planning Division periodically updates the Bend Development Code (BDC) to update various standards and processes to better align with local practice and with Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) and Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR). This package of amendments is the latest effort to update the Code. While there are some substantive changes in this update, the intention was not to tackle larger policy issues. The changes are intended to be helpful to the community and developers, and to aid the Community Development Department staff in implementing the Code.
- CityView File Number: PLTEXT20250392
- Ordinance No. 2541
- Adopted: November 19, 2025
- Effective Date: December 19, 2025
Historic Versions of the Development Code
The Bend Development Code is always updated to show the most recent code changes adopted by Council. If you have a land use application submitted on a date prior to the effective date of Bend’s current development code, the applicable codes will be those in place on the date the application was submitted.
Previous versions of the Bend Development Code can be found on the Bend Development Code website. Click “Track” and go to “historic versions.”