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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us July 15, 2005 Talent growth limit mulled Neighbors speak out against expanding urban boundary, fear loss of rural feeling By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings TALENT — More than three dozen residents waited hours to hear the Talent Planning Commission discuss lands that will be considered for addition to the city’s urban growth boundary on Thursday night. Almost a dozen people, most of whom live on Rapp Lane or Theo Drive to the southwest of city limits, addressed the commission. Most argued against the proposal to include their rural neighborhood to lands the city may look to for residential growth 10 or 20 years in the future. “There’ll be no horses and no chickens, and no extended families,” said Sally Humiston, who plans to move into a home on Theo Drive this summer. “You’re going to change people’s lifestyles.” The commission identified lands outside of the current urban growth boundary that will be designated as future growth areas for the city through the Regional Problem Solving process, a partnership of jurisdictions in the greater Bear Creek area. Lands north of Colver Road and along Rapp Road were being considered for addition to the RPS, which will be concluded at the end of August. The land would not immediately be included inside the urban growth boundary, but would be identified as areas where growth could occur in the future. “We are not going to force our boundaries until we absolutely have to,” Commissioner Joi Riley said. The Colver Road properties would be for industrial development, public facilities and some residential lands. Along Rapp Road, land would be added until the point where extending water service is unfeasible. The commission approved a recommendation that the city council add the Colver Road lands to the RPS process, but continued the discussion about the Rapp Road properties until its July 28 meeting. “I’m for it because it’s going to give me more options,” said Lenny Parrish, who has lived on Rapp Road for 15 years. Nearing retirement, with children and grandchildren, Parrish said he may want to trade some of his open space and cows for a house where his extended family could live. He was the only person who spoke in favor of adding the Rapp Road areas to the RPS process. Humiston brought a petition signed by Rapp Lane and Theo Drive neighbors urging the commission to keep their lands out of the city, regardless of when the properties would actually be annexed into city limits and could be developed into subdivisions. “This is like a wedge in the door,” Humiston said. “You think it’s nothing ... but all it takes is one neighbor to put those five houses in.” In other business, the planning commission: • approved a detailed development plan for a 2.45-acre mixed-use project at 204 S. Pacific Hwy. Ashland resident Mike Davis is building B & D Business Park. The development will include four commercial buildings with retail, light industrial and warehouse space, as well as six apartments, a communal park-like setting and a walking path along Wagner Creek that will be open to the public; • approved a concept plan for a 15-lot, 4.13-acre residential subdivision on the 1600 block of Lithia Way with a handful of conditions. The Lithia View Phase II development, which surrounds a degraded wetland area, will see 15 single-family homes be built between the 20-lot Lithia View Phase I project and Highway 99. The commission unanimously approved the plan with conditions that Jackson County Fire District 5 weigh in on the detailed plan, that a copy of the homeowners association agreement be submitted with the second plan and reviewed by the city attorney, and that the six homes built to front Lithia Way alternate between two-story and one-and-a-half-story structures. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams