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SATURDAY February 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels January 20, 2004 Looking to limit growth By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings It's time for residents who are concerned about the negative effects of growth to wage a lobbying campaign to sway Ashland City Council members and state legislators to halt further expansion, according to Alternatives to Growth founder Andy Kerr. Speaking in Ashland on Monday night to members of the Jackson County Chapter of the statewide Alternatives to Growth organization, Kerr said council members should be pressured to pass a resolution requesting a change in state law to allow local jurisdictions to halt growth. "It's time to make a political issue with the city council of how big do you want to get. Hold the city council and mayoral candidates responsible," he told members of the mainly appreciative audience. "If you make a political issue about growth in Ashland, you will affect elections." While Oregon has land use laws that offer some protections for agricultural and forest lands while limiting sprawl, the state also requires communities to accept a share of growth. Cities may declare temporary moratoriums on growth - as Talent did when developing a new water supply - but only until the problem is resolved. "Local jurisdictions need to have the ability to say, 'No,'" Kerr said. "Under state law, no jurisdiction has the right to say, 'No.' We need to send a message that we don't want to grow." Anti-growth activists hope to place an initiative on the 2006 ballot that would allow cities to levy higher system development charges on new construction to cover the cost to governments of providing infrastructure, he said. "You will transfer the cost of housing to those who are buying it," he said. Kerr said it is time to challenge the assumption that growth is good and necessary, and instead recognize that it brings added traffic congestion, higher taxes, increased pollution and less open space while straining water supplies and other natural resources. Audience members praised a recent city council decision to vote against designating new areas outside the urban growth boundary for future development. A 90-acre piece near Tolman Creek Road and Siskiyou Boulevard, as well as another 90 acres along East Main Street, had been identified as potential growth areas for Ashland by participants in the NOWx2 planning process for the greater Bear Creek Valley. The growth areas would accommodate a valley population predicted to double between now and 2040 or 2060. The planning effort - covering Ashland, Talent, Phoenix, Medford, Jacksonville, Central Point and Eagle Point - is meant to shift growth away from prime agricultural land while also creating open space buffer zones between communities to prevent them from growing into one undifferentiated mass. On Dec. 2, the council voted 4-2 against designating the growth areas, with Councilors Kate Jackson and Cate Hartzell voting for the growth areas in order to create more buildable land for affordable housing. Banning growth in Ashland would exclude many families from the community, said Jackson, who was present for Kerr's Monday night presentation. "Ashland is already so desirable and so expensive, if you prohibited building of more houses you would only make things worse from a bad situation," she said. "I want young teachers to buy houses here. I want people with kids to move here. If you put a capsule around Ashland and let no one in or out, we would all grow old and die." Kerr said there is a solution for the affordable housing crunch. "Ashland has affordable housing. Lots of it. It's called Talent," he said, but also added that more people could live here if all businesses paid living wages. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: The new search is here! Click here for more information. .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams