Climate-Friendly Areas Evaluation Report

Medford Climate Friendly Area Study – Evalua Ɵon of Candidate Loca Ɵons Revised December 2023 3 Executive Summary The City of Medford has evaluated potential C limate Friendly Areas within the city’s Urban Growth Boundary. Early on, sta ff met to discuss the administrative rule governing CFA designation and identify potential areas for fu rther analysis. Three areas were chosen for further consideration and study. They include:  Candidate A: Medford’s downtown core area and possible subareas to the north and south, (268.29 total net acres);  Candidate B: the West Main neighbor hood (151.35 total net acres); and  Candidate C: portions of the Southeast Plan Transit Oriented District, (140.35 net gross acres). Based on the City’s adopted 2022-2042 Housin g Capacity Analysis, Medford needs 13,102 new dwelling units to accommodate future grow th. Thirty percent of the City’s existing (33,763) and future needed (13,102) housing units results in a total of 14,060 dwelling units. Using the methodology in 660-012-0315(2), sta ff estimated that the City needs to designate 145 acres within one or more C limate Friendly Areas (CFA). City staff worked with 3J Consulting and neig hboring communities to conduct public outreach on the project and gain feedback on the study locations. A virtual kicko ff meeting was held on February 2, 2023, to launch the project and field initial questions and feedback from the public. On April 13, 2023, an open house was held with the cities of Medford, Ashland and Talent to provide an overview of the project and discu ss with community members their thoughts on the study areas for each city. Five participants filled out comment cards at the open house with feedback speci fic to the City of Medford. In addition to these two publ ic outreach events, Medford sta ff also held a round table discussion with two community members to disc uss the proposed locations in more detail. The study areas were discussed with the Planni ng Commission, which served as the advisory body for the project, on April 10, 2023. All three locations have strengths and weakne sses that need to be considered. However participating community members and sta ff favor the Downtown location as the primary candidate for designation with additional acreage included north and south of Downtown.