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Mobile home park backers make pitch Opponents to speak at next meeting BY JIM DAVIS A huge mobile home park planned for west Medford meets all the city's standards, said the developer's lawyer at a public hearing Thursday night. The 514-unit project -- what could become the largest mobile-home park ever built in Oregon -- would also fill a need for housing in Medford, said Richard Stevens, who represented Stonebrook Associates before the city's Planning Commission. "There's a tremendous demand for this type of housing," said Stevens, noting that a smaller mobile home development in south Medford sold out within two months. The public hearing was to review the preliminary plans for the park on 88 acres on the north side of Rossanley Drive just west of North Ross Lane. The hearing was continued until the commission's next meeting in two weeks. The Planning Commission allowed only the developer's lawyers and one opponent to speak before adjourning for the night. Planning Commission Chairman Carl Bartlett told the spectators -- a few dozen -- that he would let them speak for as long if not longer than the developer at the next meeting. Stonebrook Associates is a group of Medford partners including developers John Schleining and Chris Galpin. The proposed park is a planned unit development that would have homes and mini-storage as well as recreational vehicle storage to serve as a buffer to the neighboring Sage Road Industrial Park. Plans also include a small amount of retail space and a swimming pool, basketball courts, horseshoe pits, tennis courts and a landscaped walkway around the development. Stevens said that 12 of the 88 acres of the project are devoted to parks or open spaces, which he said was a higher percentage than any other single-family home subdivision approved by the city in recent years. He said that the developers have dealt with storm drainage issues on the site. He also said that traffic issues have been met and approved by the city, Jackson County and the Oregon Department of Transportation. "They have all reached a consensus that this is a design they can accept," Stevens said. Further, the project has been zoned since 1990 for a "manufactured-dwelling community," Stevens said. "For nine years, this has been before the city as a manufactured home project," Stevens said. Neighbor Jessica Ross, who was the only opponent allowed to testify Thursday night, said that mobile homes deteriorate like cars do and the whole project would depreciate in just a few years, bringing down the entire area. She said the city has an obligation to future generations to have stick-built homes constructed at the site. "I think we have to make this development so it can be used for generations," Ross said. "This land is scenic property. It can be built with better homes." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA