July 2008 Oregon Business Magazine Notes the Impact of the Redmond Re-route
After $90 million, a decade of planning and over a year’s worth of construction, a reroute of Highway 97 around downtown Redmond finally is complete. But now, with the city’s main streets carrying a fraction of what was once 30,000 cars and trucks a day, the real planning begins. “Now we can start bringing life back to downtown,” says Bud Prince, manager of Redmond Economic Development. In the coming months the city is considering making majors changes to the municipal codes. Options include requiring businesses to revamp signage and storefronts; allowing the construction of 80- or 100-foot buildings also is a possibility.