Oregon
Buying Land in Deschutes County, Oregon
Deschutes County is Central Oregon's growth engine, built around Bend, Redmond, and Sisters. Bend's population crossing 100,000 triggered a real state restriction on new destination resorts nearby -- and county commissioners' choice not to write it into local code is a live, current story worth understanding if resort-style development interests you. Wildfire risk, meanwhile, is not hypothetical here.
Bend's growth triggered a real destination-resort restriction
Deschutes County has long been one of Oregon's most active destination-resort markets, and a 2026 milestone makes that market genuinely more complicated going forward: Bend's population has grown past 100,000 people. Under Oregon Revised Statute 197.455 and Statewide Planning Goal 8, that threshold matters specifically because state law bars counties from approving a new destination resort within 24 air miles of an urban growth boundary belonging to a city of 100,000 or more, unless the resort's residential component is limited to housing necessary for its own staff and management -- effectively closing off the standard for-sale-home-lots resort model within that radius once a nearby city crosses the threshold.
In 2023, the conservation group Central Oregon LandWatch pushed Deschutes County to write this state restriction explicitly into the county's own Destination Resort combining-zone code, anticipating Bend's growth. The county's Board of Commissioners initially voted 2-1 to approve that local code change on July 26, 2023 -- then reconsidered and reversed itself, voting 2-1 to deny it on August 9, 2023. That reversal doesn't necessarily mean the state restriction stopped applying (ORS 197.455 and Goal 8 operate as a matter of state law independent of whether county code text mirrors them), but it does mean the county chose not to build the restriction directly into its own reviewable code language. For the full history and what it means for a resort-adjacent land purchase, see our dedicated zoning page below.
Wildfire risk in 2026: not hypothetical
Central Oregon's 2026 wildfire season has been genuinely severe, part of a statewide season that had produced 1,667 fires and burned over 2.5 million acres as of late August 2026, concentrated in central, north, and eastern Oregon. Deschutes County itself was directly affected: the Pine Mountain Fire burned 2,589 acres southeast of Bend between roughly May 7 and May 11, 2026, before firefighters reached containment.
In response to this and prior fire seasons, Deschutes County has been actively considering changes to building codes and land-use regulations specifically aimed at reducing wildfire risk, and has supported fuels-reduction and wildfire-preparedness projects such as the La Pine Wildfire Mitigation Project. For any parcel in forested or high-desert terrain adjacent to public land -- which describes a large share of the county -- confirm current wildfire-hazard classification, any defensible-space or building-material requirements, and homeowners' insurance availability before buying.
EFU land under growth pressure, and a mostly-federal county
Deschutes County retains real Exclusive Farm Use farmland -- particularly the irrigated ground around Tumalo, Alfalfa, and Terrebonne -- but it operates under more development pressure than EFU land in many other Oregon counties, simply because Bend and Redmond's rapid growth has made nearby land more valuable for residential and resort use than in most of the state. That pressure doesn't change the underlying legal test for a non-farm dwelling or land division on EFU ground, which still requires conditional-use approval and specific findings under the same statewide framework described in our Oregon overview -- confirm dwelling eligibility and any current EFU standards directly with Deschutes County Community Development.
It's also worth remembering that a substantial majority of Deschutes County's total land area is federal -- the Deschutes National Forest and BLM land make up most of the county outside its city areas -- with private land concentrated in and around Bend, Redmond, Sisters, and La Pine. That pattern is part of why so much private land here sits directly adjacent to forested public land, which is itself a major driver of the wildfire exposure discussed above.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Deschutes County
Deschutes County's assessor and recorder contact information was not independently confirmed this research pass -- contact Community Development for a referral. Phone numbers for these offices were not confirmed this pass; verify current numbers on the linked pages before calling.
Planning & Zoning
Deschutes County Community Development Department
Zoning verification, EFU dwelling questions, destination-resort combining-zone rules, and wildfire-hazard overlay standards.
Other
Oregon DEQ Onsite Wastewater Program (Deschutes County agent)
Septic system permitting and site evaluations for parcels not on a public sewer system.
Other
Deschutes County GIS / Dial Data
Online parcel, zoning, urban-growth-boundary, and wildfire-hazard-zone map lookups for a specific property.
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Get local guidanceTopics Specific to Deschutes County
Sources
- Deschutes County seeks public input on growth, housing and wildfire planning priorities — KTVZ (accessed 2026-09)
- Time to limit new destination resorts in Deschutes County — Central Oregon LandWatch (accessed 2026-09)
- 247-22-000835-TA -- Destination Resort Text Amendment — Deschutes County, Oregon Government (accessed 2026-09)
- C.O. LandWatch seeking Deschutes County rules to sharply limit homes at any future destination resorts near Bend — KTVZ (accessed 2026-09)
- County Commissioners reverse decision to limit destination resorts — Central Oregon LandWatch (accessed 2026-09)
- 2026 Oregon wildfires — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-09)
- Urban Growth Boundary (dataset) — Deschutes County GIS (accessed 2026-09)
- Zoning -- Wildfire Hazard (dataset) — Deschutes County GIS (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09