Ashland Street office building proposal also up for review at Tuesday night meeting

By Craig Breon for Ashland.news

Last week’s meeting of the Ashland’s Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) produced little good news for a four-lot subdivision proposed at 431 North Main St. in the city’s historic Skidmore Academy District. Committee members’ comments on Jan. 7 proved so stridently negative as to likely kill chances for project approval at Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting.

The current building at the corner of North Main and Nursery streets contains a home originally built in 1898 and several subsequent additions to that structure. The building — now nearly 5,000 square feet — contains seven apartments in dilapidated condition. For this reason, the HPAC members quickly dispensed with notions of saving the structure.

The existing building would be demolished, and, the applicant proposes, in its place would rise three single-family homes and a six-unit single-room occupancy (SRO) building, with the SRO proposed for the corner of North Main and Nursery, thus the most prominently placed.

Single-room occupancy homes are a form of affordable housing described by Derek Severson, Ashland Planning Supervisor, as “Essentially a boarding house.” Each unit would contain a single room with a small bathroom and a counter area for microwave type cooking. A common kitchen and laundry would serve all six units.

A 2023 state law, HB 3395, encourages SRO housing by requiring that it be allowed in most city residential zones, with up to six SRO units per lot zoned for single-family detached housing. HB 3395 is an example of efforts occurring in many states to encourage housing by usurping some amount of land use authority traditionally left to local governments.

The HPAC members did not object to the concept of an SRO home on the highly visible front of the property, but they spoke with universal disdain for the design as proposed by property owner Rogue Holdings LLC.

“This is just one monolithic box,” noted Jud Prest, architect and committee member, adding, “It cannot be that massive façade all the way across.”

Member Sam Whitford commented, “That’s really a prominent lot” and of the proposal “I don’t like it.”

Member Katy Repp chimed in with, “It would be a big bummer.” With more specificity, committee chair Shelby Scharen objected to “form and proportions and massing and scale.”

Even the property owner’s representative, Amy Gunter, acknowledged that the SRO building as proposed was “ranchy,” a style not in sync with the surrounding neighborhood.

Committee comments on the three proposed single-family units were comparatively muted, yet lacked enthusiasm. Described as “monotonous” by member Prest and “cookie-cutter” by chair Scharen, members variously recommended changes to the prominence and design of the garages and the facades and suggested that one of the homes be essentially reversed in floor plan to provide some variety.

Project representative Gunter admitted, “They’re pretty much the exact same house.”

In summarizing, committee member Sam Whitford chided the property owners, “Their project could do a lot better.”

The HPAC members did not, at meeting’s end, provide specific recommendations to the Planning Commission, instead forwarding general comments for revisions they thought needed prior to project approval. As a result, at the Jan. 13 commission meeting, most likely either the project applicants or the commission will propose a one-month delay to allow for design amendments.

In recent letters to the Community Development Department, neighbors to 431 North Main St. raised concerns regarding the proposed lack of off-street parking for the SRO building. Adam and Susan Lemon, innkeepers of Abigail’s Bed and Breakfast Inn, on the opposite corner of North Main and Nursery, wrote, “This development will undoubtably create added pressure on the parking available on Nursery Street … lead[ing] to reduced accessibility, safety concerns, and a diminished quality of life for the existing community.”

Recent Oregon laws no longer allow Ashland and other cities to require off-street parking for most development projects, as a method to discourage car-dependent development projects and promote transportation alternatives. Project representative Gunter noted to the committee that market forces will still lead to garages being proposed for most single-family homes, and one-car garages are proposed for the three homes on the property.

2262 Ashland St. office proposal

Also on Tuesday’s planning commission agenda is a proposal to build two, 10,000 square foot office buildings fronting on Ashland Street in the Shop’n Kart/Bi-Mart shopping center. This item was continued from the commission’s meeting of Dec. 9due to an error in the public notice.

The primary concern raised by the public at the commission’s December hearing on this project was the fate of the Yuan Yuan restaurant. The building housing the restaurant is proposed to be demolished, although the restaurant owners may be able to rent some or all of the lower story of one of the new office buildings.

Email Jackson County resident, consultant and former environmental law instructor Craig Breon at [email protected].

Related stories:

PUBLIC NOTICE: Ashland Planning Commission (Dec. 23, 2025)

Planning Commission approves Scenic Drive subdivision, delays Ashland Street commercial buildings (Dec. 10, 2025)

Pair of public hearings Tuesday before Ashland Planning Commission (Dec. 7, 2025)