Croman Mill, downtown, not recommended by staff for inclusion; City Council to discuss at study session Monday

By Craig Breon for Ashland.news

At a special meeting of Ashland’s Planning Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 22, the lengthy process of implementing a state program to designate Climate Friendly Areas (CFAs) for future development came into sharper focus, with some surprises and a little controversy.

The big surprise was an omission. The more than 60-acre Croman Mill property on the south side of the city — the largest open space of developable land in the city and originally thought to be the anchor of the CFA designations — was not included in the staff recommendations for program inclusion and was barely discussed by planning commissioners.

The controversy centered on the downtown, also not included in the staff recommendations but the focus of extensive questioning by the commissioners, who urged further study of including the downtown area as a CFA.

The two areas now recommended for inclusion are the Railroad Property, a short distance northeast of downtown, and the Transit Triangle, encompassing a large area — much of which is already developed — bounded by Ashland Street and Siskiyou Boulevard, with the tip of the triangle at Southern Oregon University (SOU).

Oregon’s Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities program requires larger urban and suburban cities — primarily along the I-5 corridor — to designate areas for more densely built communities, often with a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. The thrust is to generate more walkable areas that require fewer cars, with the ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

From the beginning, Ashland has embraced the program, including being the first community to have an initial outline approved by the state. Other communities have been less welcoming.  Medford joined a handful of cities to sue the program last year, claiming the state had exceeded its authority over local land use. This spring, the program was upheld by the courts in almost all respects.

The CFA program is proving challenging to most all communities implementing it. Adapting a large, new program to areas as diverse as metro Portland and as small as Ashland has required the state to make adjustments on the fly, often after cities requested clarifications, exceptions, or adjustments.

But these serial changes can also be difficult to adjust to. In an email outside of the meeting, Derek Severson, Ashland’s planning manager, acknowledged that, for staff, “there was certainly some frustration at the state fine-tuning the rules as we were in the process of trying to implement them.” However, he also noted that staff were “very appreciative” for the substantial state funding and consulting services needed for the planning process.

The hardest planning area for Ashland currently is the Croman Mill Property, and this is why the property is currently not part of the recommended CFA areas. At the same time city planners are trying to implement a large planning process, a specific plan for development is progressing, led by Townmakers LLC. 

While Townmakers has not submitted a formal permit application to the city, discussions have been ongoing for some time. Townmakers’ vision for Croman Mill has many of the same intents as the CFA program — a mix of land uses and densities designed to create a more pedestrian-oriented landscape — yet it differs in some key aspects. 

The biggest difference is in housing density. The CFA program requires a minimum density of 15 dwelling units per acre. Townmakers want to include some single-family housing and cottages, likely due to market demand, and thus economics. While the overall number of housing units on the property may be as many as 700, on a property this size, that number would fall below the CFA standards.

There have also been concerns expressed in community meetings that a large build-out of Croman Mill could compete with downtown.

The Railroad Property, on the other hand, seems a no-brainer for CFA inclusion, but includes substantial constraints. The west side of the property has excellent street access and could easily accommodate a mix of land uses. The east side of the property, however, contains access constraints as well as some wetland areas, and a portion of the east side is planned to contain some toxic soils that would be capped with healthy soil but would still offer limited development options.

Community hearings also brought forth a concern that Railroad Property construction could obstruct views toward Grizzly Peak. State CFA standards prohibit Ashland and other cities from imposing height restriction below 50 feet, though such heights are not likely in many places due to the cost of construction for these taller buildings, such as the requirement for elevators.

Plans for development of the Railroad Property are not nearly as far along as for Croman Mill, so the CFA standards are easier to implement.

The Transit Triangle, also proposed for CFA inclusion, represent the largest proposed CFA, but the area already contains extensive development of various types.

About five years ago, the city created an overlay area — essentially a map on top of existing maps — for the Transit Triangle to encourage greater and more varied development. But, as city staff acknowledged at the meeting, that overlay has produced scant results. City staff and consultants commented that the CFA standards would simplify the rules, perhaps attracting greater interest.

As for downtown, there have been concerns from the beginning of the city’s CFA process that designating the downtown a CFA could result in damage to the historic and aesthetic look of Ashland central attraction. Also, it has been argued that the downtown already meets most of the CFA’s overall goals.

Commissioner Susan MacCracken Jain, however, presented a counterargument. Noting that she is “a downtown business owner” herself, she maintains that the downtown needs a second look as a CFA. Commissioner Eric Herron quickly backed her up, and other commissioners seemed willing to go along with this direction to staff. 

After the discussion of downtown, city staff were adamant in repeating a notion that Severson relayed in a previous interview, “Nothing is decided yet.”

The deadline for completing the CFA planning process was to be the end of 2024, but Ashland applied for and received an extension until mid-2025. 

Ashland’s City Council, previously showing great enthusiasm for the CFA process, will conduct a study session of its own on the CFA proposals on Monday, Nov. 4.

There is an online community survey about the CFAs, with some comprehensive background information, at surveymonkey.com/r/K5M2Q7S. It will remain open until Nov. 18.

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

Oct. 31: Corrected cardinal direction of Railroad Property from downtown.

Related stories:

Public open house Tuesday focuses on Climate Friendly Areas (Sept. 15, 2024)

Council agrees: A denser Ashland would make more city more ‘liveable’ (July 18, 2024)

Ashland close to designating Climate Friendly Areas for development (Sept. 15, 2023)

Trio of Rogue Valley cities to host event on ‘climate-friendly’ neighborhoods (April 1, 2023)

Ashland to co-host discussion on policy for ‘Climate-Friendly Communities’ (Jan. 29, 2023)