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State gets Ashland hillside plan LUBA to decide plan for Strawberry Lane By PETER WONG SALEM -- A state board will decide by early April whether to uphold Ashland's approval of a 25-lot subdivision on upper Strawberry Lane, the last large undeveloped hillside area within the city. The City Council approved the subdivision last summer, but seven neighbors appealed it to the state Land Use Board of Appeals, which heard arguments Thursday. The lawyers' arguments were based on the record of city proceedings; no new testimony was allowed. LUBA referee Michael Holstun said the board hoped to issue an opinion by April 1. The board can uphold the city or return the matter for further proceedings. Opponents said the council lacked substantial evidence to support three points of its approval and violated its land use plan and state law. The council concluded that the subdivision would not generate enough traffic to overtax lower Strawberry Lane and other streets below it, that Westwood Street above it is sufficient as an alternate route and that drainage to Alnutt Street is adequate. "We contend that these requirements have not been met," said Jon Peele, who represents the seven residents who filed the appeal. Others were Tim Brandy, Cici Brown, Christine Crawley, Patricia Haley, Susan Hunt and Benjamin Stott. Peele said they do not oppose the subdivision, but their concerns about safety were not satisfied. The developer, Douglass Neuman, has agreed to pave Strawberry Lane down to its intersection with Alnutt Street. The council attached a condition to subdivision approval that left the way open for improvements of one or more streets below the intersection. "But there is no evidence in the record that the topography will allow these country lanes to be improved to city standards," Peele said. John Hassen, a Medford lawyer who represents Neuman and landowners Margaret Brown and Paul Hwoschinsky, disagreed with Peele's argument. He said the city requirement provides a way to secure future street improvements, and that even without them, the applicants contend that the subdivision will not overburden the streets below and has adequate access above it. This case is the second involving Ashland pending before LUBA. It also has an appeal from Friends of the Creek, which contends that it is a land use action for Ashland to use treated wastewater to irrigate a nearby hillside on the east side of Interstate 5. The group wants LUBA to require Jackson County to handle the matter as a conditional use of farmland, subject to public review. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA