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Regional planning report expected to spark debate By Peter Wong of the Mail Tribune Even before its release, a report is drawing criticism for urging future development be directed toward Medford and White City and away from productive farmland to the west and south. But the coordinator of the regional planning project says the report will help shape the public debate about what the Bear Creek Valley -- and its growing urban corridor from Ashland to Eagle Point -- should look like in the next half century. "Some of what is in the report is going to be controversial," said John Eads, project coordinator for the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. "I doubt that anybody who participated in Our Region (project) is going to agree with all of it. "But I think it sets the stage for future discussions. The recommendations are very specific about some of the things that ought to be done to protect resource lands on our urban fringes in the long term and direct growth elsewhere. "So it is worthwhile in terms of advancing the public debate about how we should proceed to accommodate growth while we try to maintain something of our historic character and quality of life." Four years in the making, the report resulted from community concerns that a surging population soon would overrun the Bear Creek Valley. Jackson County's population grew by 18 percent between 1990 and 1998 (from 146,387 to 172,800), slightly more than the statewide rate of 15 percent for the decade. Almost 60 percent of county residents live in the seven cities within the Bear Creek Valley corridor. The report projects a county population of 291,511 by 2050, though two alternative forecasts push that total beyond 300,000. Backed by Gov. John Kitzhaber, who said Oregon's regions should help shape their own futures within the broad framework of statewide requirements to protect farmland and contain population growth within cities, state planning grants were made available for the project by the 1995 and 1997 Legislatures. Of almost 27,000 acres now zoned for exclusive farm use in the Bear Creek Valley, 25,120 acres are in the top four soil classes of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service that state planning requirements protect as farmland. To protect the lands with the best soils and the most usage or potential for orchards and other crops, the report proposes a new farm conservation zone for thousands of acres, largely west and south of Medford. Though the proposed zoning would not affect land already zoned for rural residential uses, it also would bar further partition of farmland to discourage its development. Other, smaller areas are recommended for acquisition or preservation as open space. To promote development of housing and businesses for a growing population, the report proposes new areas for future growth north, northeast, east and southeast of Medford, and smaller areas next to Central Point, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Talent and Ashland. White City, the county's largest unincorporated community, also would be designated as a prime growth area. The report specifies the areas outside cities recommended for preservation or development. Though it has been in circulation among project participants for a month, the 94-page report still is a draft that has not cleared the 12-member steering committee. "I have not had a chance to read it thoroughly," said Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas, one of its members, who favors a balance between development and preservation. "But I think there is a general concern that this report represents the viewpoint of the staff, rather than of the wide-ranging discussions we had as a large group." Participants included only a few local government officials, such as Kupillas and Medford City Council members Bill Moore and Jim Key. They did include members of the Jackson County Citizens League, which favors state restrictions on development outside cities, and 20-20 Commitment, which seeks to relax them on less productive rural lands. Barbara Bean of Ashland, a league member, said some of the dissatisfaction stems from the pressure on the group -- and the staff -- to finish the report by the state's deadline this summer. "A lot of people felt it was not finished, and there was a lot of disagreement about how to go about it," said Bean, who is not on the steering committee. "All of us in the Our Region project agreed that this was a draft that should get more work, but we have not seen it." Bean said though she favored stronger protection of the most productive farmland and preservation of more open space, "I feel it needs to be nailed down a little more." Though viewpoints of participants varied considerably, the report said nearly everybody subscribed to two principles: "To work toward the preservation of resource lands without conceding that this valley will experience significant growth in the future, and to not fashion a strategy of preservation around the inevitability of that growth, is unrealistic and counterproductive." "Growth, especially high levels of growth, without a dedication to maximum preservation of the natural environment, agriculture and open space is unconscionable." Bean said the next step in the project should be to involve the public, not just local governments. It is uncertain how the report's recommendations are to be put into effect, because there is no centralized or shared decisionmaking process for land use in the region. The proposed future growth areas would require action by cities and the county, and the new farm conservation zone would have to be created and applied by the county. The state Land Conservation and Development Commission also might become involved if statewide planning requirements have to be altered. But the report said regional cooperation is becoming a reality in planning for transportation needs, air and water quality, and water supply. "At its most basic, Our Region (the project) was to nudge the region toward cooperating on planning our shared futures," it concludes. "If, as we suspect, Our Region has succeeded in doing just that, then it has fulfilled its purpose." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA