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Affordable housing offer may be too late for Lower Pines residents By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings An offer of help for Lower Pines Mobile Home Park residents facing eviction may have come too late, but could result in the creation of affordable housing down the line. A Medford-based property owner is considering development of an affordable housing project just outside the city limits at the end of Mountain Avenue across Interstate 5. "If the city is in favor of the project (my client) is willing to develop the entire parcel for affordable housing," Ashland real estate broker Iraj Ostovar said. "We would want to make it available to the people being evicted." Ostovar represents the David Young Family Trust, which has expressed an interest in developing about five acres of land near the intersection of North Mountain Avenue and East Nevada Street for affordable housing. A lower section of the property is already within the city limit, and has access to city water, according to Ostovar. The remainder is not only outside the city, but outside the city's urban growth boundary - which lines up with the city limits in many places around Ashland. "The only dilemma we have is, much of the land is outside the urban growth boundary," Ostovar said. "It's right on the edge of the city." That could be a large obstacle, according to Ashland Planning Director John McLaughlin. "It is nice to hear someone wants to do affordable housing," McLaughlin said. "But, and this is a huge 'but', changing the urban growth boundary is very complicated and time intensive. With intense work it could take at least a year." Cities are required by the state to have urban growth boundaries to mark out surrounding area available for expansion. Goal 14 of the 19 goals developed by the state for land-use planning deals with creating urban growth boundaries for every city in the state. The goal protects farm and forest lands outside urban growth boundaries from urban development and ensures that growth within the boundaries conforms to the infrastructure needs of the cities. Changing the urban growth boundary would require cooperation and approval by both the city and Jackson County, and could only be made after considering a large number of issues, according to McLaughlin. "We haven't done one in at least 20 years," McLaughlin said. Many trailer park residents would welcome the opportunity to stay in Ashland if they could afford to, according to Rich Rohde of Oregon Action, a Medford-based peace and justice organization which has been advocating for Lower Pines residents for the past two years. "Probably a majority of the people at Lower Pines enjoy mobile home living," Rohde said. "They would obviously be pleased if there was a way to move their mobile homes to another site while staying in Ashland." Lower Pines residents learned in January that they would be evicted after park owner Greg Adams announced he was no longer negotiating with the Rogue Valley Community Development Corporation to sell the trailer park property for construction of a low-income housing development. The plan had been to build a collection of affordable units, make them available to the residents and help pay relocation costs. Now only in the idea stage, Ostovar did ot yet know if his client's project would be all affordable housing, partial affordable housing or if mobile home sites would be an aspect. Lower Pines residents don't have much time. Even if successful, such a project would not likely bring relief to displaced Lower Pines residents for quite a while. In the middle of eviction proceedings - with a trial starting Friday - residents likely have only a few weeks before they must leave their homes, according to Rohde. "Where do they go in the interim?" Rohde said. If the clock runs out and residents must leave the city, they could be offered the chance to live in the new units once they were built. "Wherever they go, at least they have a possibility of coming back," Ostovar said. "It's a win-win for everyone." With the spotlight on affordable housing in the city, more thoughts on possible solutions are percolating every day. If this latest effort doesn't pan out, at least it's a sign that people in the community are wrestling with the affordable housing issue, according to Rohde. "It's a good suggestion and it's a great direction for people to look if we want to find a solution," Rohde said. "But the level of difficulty sounds formidable." Mobile home parks have historically been a source of low-income housing for communities such as Ashland. With rising land values in the city, the parks are seen as threatened by many, according to Rohde. "Is there a role for mobile home parks in the future development of Ashland?" Rohde added. "That's the broader question." Also, there are many side issues and implications to be considered with an expansion of the city's urban growth boundary. Whether the greater good would be served by going that direction is an open question, according to Rohde. "The city needs to decide whether or not it wants to do that and what are the conditions (for changing the boundary)," Rohde said. "Those are larger questions separate from the tragedy of these people who have to be off their land in a few weeks." sidebar Bringing land into the city from outside the urban growth boundary is easier said than done. Urban growth boundaries are established to identify and separate urbanizable land from rural land. According the Land Conservation and Development Commission of the State of Oregon, Establishment and change of the boundaries shall be based upon considerations of the following factors: demonstrated need to accommodate long-range urban population growth requirements; need for housing, employment opportunities, and livability; orderly and economic provision for public facilities and services; maximum efficiency of land uses within and on the fringe of the existing urban area; environmental, energy, economic and social consequences; retention of agricultural land; and, compatibility of the proposed urban uses with nearby agricultural activities. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. 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