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Planners OK mobile home park Development will add about 300 new homesites to West Medford By JIM DAVIS Almost grudgingly, the Medford Planning Commission approved a development Thursday night that will bring more than 300 mobile homes to west Medford. Hearing too late The Medford Planning Commission opened a public hearing Thursday night on a proposed ordinance that would restrict development along the banks of Larson Creek in southeast Medford, but testimony occurred too late to be reported in today's Mail Tribune. Planning Commissioner Jason Anderson said the 88 acres of Stonebrook Park is surrounded by industrial land on two sides, a busy road on a third and farm land on the fourth. "I don't think it's an appropriate place for 1,000 people to live," Anderson said. Even so, commissioners praised John Schleining, the main developer, for working with them on the project. Commissioners voted 7-1 to approve it. "It was annexed and it was zoned (this way)," said Planning Commission Chairman Carl Bartlett. "He (Schleining) is doing everything proper and legal." Plans for Stonebrook Park include 338 lots for mobile homes and 148 lots for conventional homes. The park is to be built north of Rossanley Drive just west of Ross Lane. The project would take 15 to 18 years to be completed. Schleining declined to talk about the project after the meeting. He is an Ashland Little League assistant coach who paid his players $5 per base hit during an all-star game, a revelation that made national news earlier this week. Schleining also instructed his agent, Richard Stevens, not to talk about the mobile-home park. The Stonebrook development changed drastically during five meetings and more than two months of public testimony and deliberations. As initially proposed, the development would have included 514 mobile homes, making it the largest mobile-home park in Oregon. The main change came when Schleining proposed to cut the number of mobile homes and add 148 conventional homes. Schleining also added a park in the middle of the project. Commissioners required an eight-foot wall or berm to be built along the north side of the property before any homes were constructed. The wall is to serve as a buffer between the homes and an industrial zone. Commissioner Robert Tull, who wanted the buffer to be built before the development, said the industrial land poses risks including fire, heat and glare. "We're talking about a community that several years down the road could hold 2 percent of the city's population living within a half mile of an established and developing heavy industrial zone," Tull said. The commission also required that a mini-storage complex be built north of the homes as another buffer. While the commissioners praised Schleining's efforts, many of them bemoaned putting a large mobile-home park in that area. "I think we should never have come to the point where all we could do is make this as safe and as palatable as we could," Tull said. Commissioner Norm Nelson said the three biggest weaknesses of the project were "location, location, location." He said previous planning commissions were wrong to make the property residential land. "The real crime in this thing occurred when this property was first annexed into the city," he said. Gibson said he'd support the project but he wasn't sure it was the best use of the land. He said it was Schleining's land and investment and he was taking the risks. "I would hope that we don't end up with this half-finished 20 years from now," Gibson said, "and left wondering what to do with it." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA