More people in less space would reduce dependence on cars, aid in climate change adaptation
By Craig Breon for Ashland.news
In just an hour and half on Monday night, the Ashland City Council strongly affirmed that the city’s future will include major swaths of taller, denser development designed to reduce our dependency on automobiles, adapt to climate change, and provide a greater amount of multi-family and affordable housing, while striving to provide spaces for commercial and small-scale industrial uses.
Part of this is mandated by the state, which created the Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities program (CFEC) in 2022. The CFEC rules address the stark fact that Oregon is woefully behind in meeting its goals to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs). Among the worst offenders is the transportation sector, and transportation patterns don’t change much without changes in land use patterns. According to Derek Severson, Ashland planning manager, transportation and land use account for 38% of Oregon’s GHG emissions.
It is tough to build traditional, suburban, low-density residential neighborhoods separated from strip-mall type commercial areas and still expect people to walk, bike, or use the bus in significant numbers. Land use planners generally agree that a minimum density of roughly 15 dwelling units per acre is needed to support a frequent public transit (i.e. bus) line. For employment areas, a minimum of 50 employees per acre best supports public transit. Bicycling is often considered too dangerous, due to cars, unless communities are planned to separate cyclists from those cars or clearly display to the cars that cyclists are present in numbers.
Ashland has proved itself a leader in forwarding the goals of CFEC. Ashland was the first of Oregon’s cities to submit an adequate, and then approved, Climate Friendly Areas (CFAs) Study to the state in 2023. Ashland has already eliminated minimum parking requirements for new development anywhere in the city, although the state rules require that elimination only in areas a given distance from major transit lines. Most developments will still include parking for reasons of practicality, but fewer parking spaces may mean more space for bikeways, walking paths, or even green spaces.
The four CFAs being considered for Ashland divide into three categories: largely undeveloped land, underdeveloped land, and near fully developed land.
The vast majority of undeveloped land intended for development within the current city boundaries (as compared to parkland or Southern Oregon University land, for example) lies in two properties: Croman Mill and the Railroad Property.
Croman Mill, roughly 62 acres, is nearly a blank slate, with minimal interface to existing residential neighborhoods. Cleanup of the property is near complete, and Townmakers LLC has been working with city staff on a master plan, including development standards that meet those of CFEC while allowing for flexibility to account for community priorities, market forces, and financing. At Croman Mill lies the potential, when combined with nearby properties, to create something akin to a second downtown on Ashland’s south.
The Railroad Property, 57 acres, is somewhat more complex, being partially developed and tight up against existing residential neighborhoods and businesses. According to city staff and Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, cleanup of the Railroad Property may be started by the spring of 2025, but a master plan for the property remains far behind that of Croman Mill. Railroad Property development will likely be more integrated into the downtown and Railroad District areas, as compared to Croman Mill’s distance from the downtown core.
When looking at underdeveloped land, the Transit Triangle, at 167 acres, presents the city with its toughest task to plan for and lure future development. Running along Ashland Street, Siskiyous Boulevard and Tolman Creek Road (thus the triangle), and abutting part of the SOU campus, the Transit Triangle overlay area was created in 2018 but has yielded little development interest since then, as noted by Severson of the Community Development Department.
Downtown Ashland represents the fourth possible CFA, but given that the downtown already meets most of the CFEC standards for reducing dependance on cars, the city may not include it in their plans for approval by the state. At the council meeting, both staff and the council members expressed concern that implementing CFEC standards downtown could lead to a degradation of the aesthetic and functional quality of a National Register-listed Historic District. As an example, the single-story Wells Fargo property on Main Street was briefly discussed, suggesting that a future two or three-story building there may be fitting, but a four or five-story building may not be.
After the staff summary of the potential CFA areas, and after lucid questioning by council members, who appeared highly engaged with this planning process, Brandon Goldman, director of community development, posed a series of conceptual questions, looking for direction from council members as staff and consultants working on behalf of the city move forward.
Both staff and council members want to see the results of a housing market analysis, expressing concerns that high housing demand could lead to the exclusion of commercial and employment opportunities. Also, this study, being drafted by the consulting firm EcoNorthwest, may confirm the recent impression that housing demand, formerly focused almost exclusively on single-family units, is shifting more toward multi-family opportunities.
The council members were near unanimous is encouraging staff to present an option which would go beyond state requirements for density and height for cities of Ashland’s size, potentially moving new development in CFAs from a minimum of 15 dwelling units per acre to 20 and from a 50-foot height restriction to 60. As examples, staff cited the affordable housing development called Snowberry Brook on Clay Street, which is 20 dwelling units per acre, and a new downtown housing development across from the post office, which is 32 dwelling units per acre.
The city council also directed staff to explore extending both increased height and density limitations beyond the designated CFAs to include all properties in the city zoned C-1 (commercial) and E-1 (employment).
Finally, the council appeared mixed on the question of including or excluding existing multi-family developments adjacent to proposed CFAs into CFA maps. Including these could help Ashland achieve the state-mandated requirement that CFAs provide for a minimum of 30% of all housing in the city’s future but would require changing existing development standards and neighborhood patterns.
As Ashland’s CFEQ process moves forward, the next major step is to draft updated zoning codes and development standards for the Climate Friendly Areas. The state deadline for submitting these to the Department of Land Conservation and Development (CLCD) is Dec. 31 of this year. With the recommendation of city staff, the council agreed to file for a six-month extension to this deadline, which is allowed.
Public participation for the Climate Friendly Areas process is multi-pronged. The city is currently conducting stakeholder interviews, which will be followed by advisory committee public meetings, a survey, an open house or meeting (currently scheduled for Sept. 17) and, finally, study sessions and hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Email Ashland resident, consultant and former environmental law instructor Craig Breon at [email protected].
Related stories:
Council looks at progress on key Croman Mill site (Nov. 8, 2023)
Ashland close to designating Climate Friendly Areas for development (Sept. 15, 2023)
Ashland’s ‘Climate Friendly Neighborhood’ focus falls on Croman Mill, railroad properties (April 15, 2023)
Trio of Rogue Valley cities to host event on ‘climate-friendly’ neighborhoods (April 1, 2023)
Ashland City Council to discuss climate-friendly neighborhoods at special meeting Wednesday (Feb. 15, 2023)
Ashland to co-host discussion on policy for ‘Climate-Friendly Communities’ (Jan. 29, 2023)
