Multi-family housing development Kestral Park planned for North Mountain Avenue. 

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

In a 5-1 vote Tuesday, Ashland City Council served as the final say and the next step toward development for Kestral Park, a multi-family housing development slated for North Mountain Avenue. 

Staff from the Community Development Department, Public Works and Ashland Fire & Rescue had all reviewed and approved the application for the development as complying with design standards and Ashland City Code, said Sydnee Dreyer, legal counsel for applicants Kyle Taylor and Mark Knox. 

While she was sympathetic to the concerns of neighbors, under the eyes of the law lay testimony is not equal to expert testimony. She reminded council of what Community Development Director Brandon Goldman had just stated — the quasi-judicial land use hearing that evening hinged on the yes-or-no question: Did city staff correctly interpret city code and the law?

“It must be said that, unfortunately, when we’re talking about land use and the land use planning process, the only thing that the city can consider is ‘what are your current code standards?’ … What the city cannot do is deny a project because someone no longer thinks it’s a good idea,”  Dreyer said. 

Neighbors appealing the decision also offered testimony, citing wildfire evacuation concerns due to increased traffic in the existing network of streets and alleyways. 

“We’re less than a mile from where the Almeda Fire started and we have the same terrain,” Veda Taylor said. 

The dense interplay of alleyways in the area could and already do occasionally cause backed up traffic and presents a problem for first responder vehicles, said Daniel DeRoux. The neighbors forming the opposition are largely residents of Mountain Meadows and Skylark and already facing age-related limitations such as mobility issues. 

“Faced with another fast-moving Almeda-style fire, the neighborhood would become a crispy one indeed. … Our homes may burn, but try to make sure our citizens survive,” DeRoux said. 

The 2-acre development would create mixed forms of housing, including studio spaces with less than 500 square feet of floor space, and larger apartments between Interstate 5 and Bear Creek and the west of North Mountain Avenue, according to the staff report. The development fulfills a 53-acre neighborhood plan created for the area in 1997, according to the report.

The units would “range from very small (500sf) eco-friendly homes to large, high-end 2,000 sf homes. Most are on very small lots and the price point is high,” according to a page referencing the development on the Millen Property Group website. 

Kestrel Park is expected to comprise a total of 24 units when fully developed, but phase 7 of the development was recently voluntarily pulled by the applicant in response to neighborhood concerns surrounding “design elements,” said Senior Planner Aaron Anderson. 

The land use hearing was an appeal to the Planning Commission’s Jan. 14, 2025, approval of planning action #PA-T2-2024-00054 —  a request for outline plan approval for a performance standards option (PSO) subdivision, residential site design review approval, for a variance to driveway width and a tree removal permit, according to the agenda item. 

Councilor Gina DuQuenne alone voted against the motion to approve the development. DuQuenne said, in light of wildfire evacuation risks, she could not support the development. 

Councilors Eric Hansen, Jeff Dahle, Bob Kaplan and Doug Knauer all expressed concern for wildfire risk but a sense of being limited by the protocol of the hearing. 

“If we burn, what’s the use of anything else we have going on? … But I am quite constrained in this hearing,” Knauer said. 

Councilor Dylan Bloom said voting against this development would set a bad precedent with developers and decrease Ashland’s reputation as a city to work with to develop housing. 

In other council business Tuesday, an ordinance formally establishing a Parks & Recreation Department was unanimously approved but not without brief comment. The ordinance, in the works since September, Mayor Tonya Graham said she was so excited she could hardly contain herself. 

“It is boring government at its very best and I am so excited,” she said. 

Hansen took a moment to remember the hard work of former Councilor Paula Hyatt in realizing the streamlined restructuring of the agreement between the two governing bodies of Ashland. 

Catherine Cato with Travel Ashland offered a presentation highlighting a few trends and future hopes for the organization and by extension the city’s tourism based economy. While hotel stays were statistically tending down by a small margin, vacation rentals were trending up. The city has been attracting younger visitors and increasing numbers from out of state. Online campaigns to rebrand the city as an outdoor recreation destination are ongoing and showing promise in social media metrics, Cato said. 

The city’s festivals such as the Mystery Fest in October and the Festival of Light have all seen strong engagement online and in visitorship. Bloom requested more events for young families, and Cato responded that one example of efforts in this direction is a planned expansion of the Festival of Light with this demographic in mind. 

Dahle inquired after an improved external events calendar or app, noting that those looking for weekend plans are unlikely to be shopping for them on government websites. Cato responded a calendar exists on the Travel Ashland page and this is already time consuming to maintain. 

Hansen emphasized the importance and increasing success of the city as a destination for recreation such as mountain biking. An avid rider of the trails himself, Hansen said he increasingly sees unfamiliar faces and learns in conversation people are traveling to Ashland for its trails. 

City Manager Sabrina Cotta stated in her city manager report the Community Center reconstruction project continued to uncover new issues such as the recent discovery of a “high water table and soil instability” but work was progressing, though over budget by “a little.” The beleaguered historical building may be reopened to the public as early as the fall of 2025. Pioneer Hall by contrast is continuing on schedule and expected to reopen by spring of 2025. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

March 6: Size of the Kestral Park development area corrected. It’s a 2-acre development, not 53 acres. The Ashland North Mountain Neighborhood Plan covers a 53-acre area. Council vote count also corrected; it was 5-1, not 4-1.