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Public meeting Who : Medford Planning Commission What : Consideration of the preliminary plan for what would become the largest mobile home park in Oregon When : 7 tonight Where : Medford City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St. Mobile home plan irks neighbors They fear traffic, devaluation of property By JIM DAVIS Neighbors opposed to plans for a huge mobile home park in west Medford say it would cause traffic problems and could cause the area to deteriorate in years to come. Developers should consider stick-built homes instead of the 514-unit mobile home park on the north side of Rossanley Drive just west of North Ross Lane, neighbors said. It would be the state's largest mobile home park. "We know it's going to be developed," said Jessica Ross, who lives three blocks away. "There's two ways that it can be developed." But Richard Stevens, who represents developer Stonebrook Associates of Medford, said developers already have dealt with the issues such as traffic. "I think the application has satisfied all the requirements of the city of Medford," Stevens said. The Medford Planning Commission is expected to consider a preliminary plan for the park at 7 p.m. tonight at Medford City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St. The issue has come before the commission twice before and has been delayed each time. The park is a planned-unit development on 88 acres. It would include homes as well as mini-storage and recreational vehicle storage, which are to serve as buffers between the park and neighboring Sage Road Industrial Park. Stonebrook Associates is a group of partners including developers John Schleining and Chris Galpin. Plans include a small amount of retail space and a swimming pool, basketball courts, horseshoe pits, tennis courts and a landscaped walkway around the development. Homes would be rented to residents, or people would bring their own homes into the property and rent a lot, Stevens said. The park would be built in 18 phases over 10 to 20 years. But neighbors are beginning to organize against the project. The owner of Westhills Country Store on Hanley Road collected 168 signatures on a petition against it. Tom Espinosa, who lives about a mile from the proposed development, said the project would bring heavier traffic to the area than roads can handle. Stevens, however, noted the project can't produce more than 3,400 vehicle trips per day, and plans call for less than that. Espinosa said the Planning Commission shouldn't allow development to bubble out onto the edges of the city, that it should instead push for development to fill empty lots within the city. He also criticized the proposed fencing -- a chain-link fence with slats -- saying it wouldn't be a proper barrier for nearby rural farmland. "What do they want to do? Duplicate White City?" Espinosa asked. Ross said mobile homes lose value over years, can become run down quickly and are fire hazards. She said the site has too little land devoted to parks. "We're going to have 88 acres in Medford that our children are going to have to deal with," Ross said. "Let's have them build suitable housing that will appreciate instead of depreciate." Stevens noted the project would be built over many years. "Everybody's fearful that it's going to be built next year," Stevens said. "Clearly it's not." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA