Kate Bentz

Email: kbentz@cityofroseburg.org
Title: Long Range Planning Assistant
Organization: City of Roseburg, Community Development Department
Community: Roseburg, Oregon
Population: 23,479
County Served: Douglas

Meet Kate Bentz (she/her/hers):

Kate recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon with a Bachelor’s degree in Planning, Public Policy, and Management. She is a native Oregonian who grew up on farmland east of Scio in Linn County. During college, she coordinated outreach for student leadership and community engagement programs and interned with UO Transportation Services and the Location Innovation Lab. She’s excited to apply her interests in urban planning and GIS to her projects in Roseburg. In her free time, you can find Kate taking road trips across Southern Oregon and trying new things at every place on the Umpqua Valley food trail.

Community and Organization:

Roseburg is the county seat for Douglas County and serves as the hub for surrounding communities sporting a great downtown and many diverse restaurants and eateries. The population is just under 25,000 and is large enough to provide everything you need but still have a small town charm. The South Umpqua River runs through the center of town, and outdoor adventure is abundant sitting only one hour east of the Oregon coast and one hour west of the Cascades. The Community Development Department is located at City Hall where staff work on long-range and short-range planning projects. It is the CDD’s responsibility to develop and implement the City’s land use policies, maintain long term comprehensive plans, review & approve all site developments, and provide staff support for various citizen committees among other things.

Project:

As a Long-Range Planning Assistant, Kate will provide crucial support on planning projects that the Community Development Department could otherwise not carry out due to capacity. She will prepare portions of two significant applications to help the City amend and expand their Urban Growth Boundary. This will require her to write narratives that argue why the proposed actions are in compliance with local, county and statewide planning goals. She will also audit the City’s Comprehensive Plan and provide recommendations on how to update the plan to align with Roseburg’s current and future goals. Finally, she will create online map tools that will be accessible for public use on the City of Roseburg website including: a floodplain insurance document search tool for realtors and prospective homeowners, a vacant industrial & commercial lands inventory for potential developers, and a historic resources map for interested citizens.