Document text
Driving range issue sent back LUBA remands decision to Ashland By DANI DODGE ASHLAND -- The city will need to make some new decisions regarding a driving range at Oak Knoll Golf Course. A neighbor, Sam Davis, appealed the city's decision to build a driving range to the state's Land Use Board of Appeals. Davis said there should have been public notice of a public hearing before the decision was made. LUBA this week remanded the driving range decision back to the city. "We're very happy with the decision," said Fred Wilson, the attorney representing Davis. "They remanded the whole thing back to the city ... and said, `Make the decision again."' City Attorney Paul Nolte will speak to the park commission Monday to determine the city's next move on the issue. The Oak Knoll Golf Course at Highway 66 and Crowson Road is a public golf course owned by the city and operated by the city's Parks and Recreation Commission. The park commission began planning for a driving range in April 1998. In June 1998, the city planning director told the commission that no permits were necessary. Poles for the driving range started going up in October 1998. Neighbors complained that the poles blocked their view and the park commission held open forums in November and December 1998. After getting public comment and forming a Driving Range Committee, the commission reaffirmed its plans to construct the driving range in March 1999. At no time did the city go through a formal land-use permit process, which would have required notification to affected landowners and a public hearing before the planning commission. Davis, who lives on Cypress Point Loop, appealed to LUBA. "There's a whole row of people who live down the fairways," Wilson said. "They had a nice view out of their back decks of Grizzly Peak. This spoils their view. "They have to see Grizzly Mountain through the driving range." LUBA sided neither with the petitioner nor the city on most of the issues in the appeal. Although LUBA agreed with Davis that he had a right to take the issue to the board, the board said it didn't have enough information to rule on some of the other specific decisions. Nolte said the city will consider a range of alternatives in responding to LUBA's opinion. The city could amend the ordinances to make it clear that a driving range is permitted on a golf course; it could ask the planning director to fill in the facts where LUBA had questions; the park commission could ask the city council for a ruling on interpretation of language in the city codes; or the city could take the driving range issue through a site review process, even though there is no basis for that in current city rules, Nolte said. "We're regrouping," Nolte said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA