Climate-Friendly Areas Evaluation Report

Southern Rogue Valley CFA Engagement Report 4 Round 2 During th e second round of engagement, from January through May 2023, in -person public meetings were held in each city. The purpose of these meetings was to present and get public feedback on CFA candidate areas. RVCOG representatives provided an overview of how CF EC rules apply to each city, then described each of the CFA candidate areas. Following the presentation, community members participated in an open -house style discussion providing comments on each of the CFA candidate areas. An online questionnaire was made available for those who could not attend the in -person meeting or preferred to participate through that tool. The questionnaire sought to receive feedback from the community regarding the proposed Climate -Friendly Areas. Round 3 The final round of community engagement consisted of some additional focus groups and continued feedback through the online questionnaire. The results of the questionnaires for each city provided insight into each of the communities’ opportunities and challenges reg arding the proposed CFA designations. Specifically, folks expressed concerns regarding the availability of infrastructure, the potential increase in density, and walkability while also expressing interest in the potential for revitalization, cohesiveness, and access to more services . V. Conclusion As a result of the community feedback, the Cities will continue to vet and refine their current proposed Climate -Friendly Areas. Specifically, in Ashland, community members were largely in favor of the regulations, and appreciated the regulation’s attempts to provide more affordable housing sited close to employment centers. They will continue to analyze as many candidate areas as possible and present their options to elected and appointed officials in t he latter half of 2023, offering further opportunities for public engagement. In Medford, while engagement efforts were supported by our team, the analysis and subsequent changes to potential CFA’s were undertaken by the City of Medford. Lastly, in Talent, through work history and past interaction with citizens, city staff identified a need to preserve the downtown area and encouraged the technical analysis team to site the CFA in an area to encourage redevelopment in areas affected by the Alameda fire. Whe n the proposed CFA was presented to the public, community members again grappled with the impact and concept of the rules themselves. There was some desire to site the CFA in a future urban reserve . Overall, the public seemed to largely agree with the cand idate area.