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Citizens raise tough questions about city's planning process By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland city land use process is often complicated, time-consuming, boring, frustrating, incomprehensible - and the results of that process are one of the greatest single factors determining residents' quality of life. Residents often come to Ashland Planning Commission or Ashland City Council meetings to oppose isolated construction projects or changes in their immediate neighborhood, but recently some residents - and city officials - have bemoaned the city's planning process itself. "We really need a public meeting to discuss the process," Meade Street resident Bill Street said. Street has written letters on the subject to local newspapers over the past few weeks, and was met with applause by an unusually crowded room when he spoke up at Tuesday's planning commission meeting. Commissioners were set to discuss - among other things - changes to the city's Big Box ordinance and standards for zone changes and annexations. Street and others argued that decisions of the commission are being made without enough citizen input, and unwelcome development and changes in the city is the inevitable result. "After attending more than my fair share of meetings in the past few years, I do think the commissioners sincerely care about the future of Ashland," Street wrote in a recent letter to The Tidings. "However, the process works in such a way that they rarely base their votes on how you, the people of Ashland, feel about the direction this town is taking." He pointed out that many of the city's planning commissioners have strong connections to the development community - either as developers, architects or landscape architects - a fact which might color their judgment, even though they must withdraw from the decision process if they have a direct conflict of interest in a project. He also called for changes to the planning commission meeting process to be less off-putting to people who attend. "The overall goal here is to engage the public in the process so that they feel welcomed and encouraged to participate," Street said. Some of Street's concerns echoed a recent, crowd-stirring speech by Tree Commissioner Bryan Holley, who spoke at the Dec. 11 planning commission meeting about the seemingly unstoppable changes coming to the city - exemplified by the December approval of a housing development in the Billings pond area. "No one is evil or malicious, but the town is changing step by step," Holley said, comparing Ashland to a frog lulled to sleep in a slowly boiling pot, cooked in its own complacency. "We're all slow toads and we're all going to sleep. The whole (development approval) process is broken." The city does make numerous efforts to inform residents of coming projects and ordinance changes, including printing city meeting agendas in The Tidings weeks in advance, notices on the city Web site, city-wide announcements included in utility bills, state-required signs posted and notes to neighbors within a certain distance of proposed projects. Also, the city sends agendas - including complete information packets - to residents who request them. Those packets contain nearly all the information on any agenda item needed. If more is wanted, residents can talk to city staff or planning commissioners. Local newspapers run regular stories on the most consequential items, and topics such as the proposed changes to the Big Box ordinance have generated coverage time and again. "But it's always possible to do more," Ashland Communications Director Ann Seltzer said. "Maybe we could do a better job getting the information out." "But its a two-way responsibility," Seltzer added. "As citizens, you have a responsibility to seek out the information, and the city has a responsibility to make the information accessible." Planning Commissioner Colin Swales would like to see the city do more to get the word out to residents - especially on planning issues. "We do need to be spoon-fed," Swales said. But Michael Gardiner, who served on the planning commission for six years before being elected to the Parks Commission in November, puts more of the responsibility on residents. "I would encourage more people to follow the process the whole way through," Gardiner said at Tuesday's commission meeting. "The information can be accessed, you need to take it on to pursue it." Swales noted that part of the problem may be apathy, but there's no telling where the apathy is coming from - frustration at the process or people interested in other subjects, or something else. "Maybe we're just whistling in the wind," Swales said. "Maybe nobody gives a damn." 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. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -