Climate-Friendly Areas Evaluation Report

Medford Climate Friendly Area Study – Evalua Ɵon of Candidate Loca Ɵons Revised December 2023 7 Using these assumptions and the method de fined in administrative rule, sta ff estimates 138 net acres are needed provide enough land for development to accommodate needed dwelling units calculated in Table 2, above. Results of the calculations above were comp ared with those resulting from a slightly different approach that considers the number of stories within a single building envelope that might be available for residential occupanc y, rather than assuming that 30 percent of theoretical total floor area is allocated to residential occupancy equally across the maximum number of building stories set forth in OAR 660-012-0315(2)(b)(F). The method de fined in OAR 660-012-0315 is purely mathematical and has the e ffect of underestimating the amount of floor area needed for residential development. Two sets of calculations are presented in Table 4. Both use the same assumptions as the first set of calculations, except that the first scenario assumes residential occupanc y takes place on no more than two floors, and the second scenario assumes that residential o ccupancy takes place on no more than three floors. In the first scenario, residential occupancy of two floors represents the equivalent of nearly 29 percent of a seven story buil ding; residential occupancy of three floors represents the equivalent of nearly 43 perc ent of a seven story building. Total floor area needed to accommodate needed DU @ 900SQFT/DU = 14,060 * 900 Number of building floors available for residential occupancy Total net land needed to accommodate residential development in CFA = 42,178,500/# of building stories (square feet) Total net land needed to accommodate residential development in CFA (acres) 12,653,550 2 6,326,775 145 3 4,217,850 97 Table 4: CFA estimated land need #2 Considering the three estimates calculated above, the minimum amount of land required for CFAs in the City of Medford ranges from 97 to 145 acres, depending on how calculations are developed. Given the history of higher density residential and mixed use residential/commercial development in Medford (particular ly its downtown), and several recent residential market studie s, it is reasonable to conclude that these development types will continue to be built at lowe r densities. However, recent trends2 suggest that this is likely 2 Recent residential development projects in downtown Medford in clude “The Genesis Apartments”, a 62 unit, three story apartment bu ilding built on 0.42 acres; “The Concord Apartments”, a 50 unit four story, regulated a ffordable apartment building built on 0. 69 acres; and the recent, ongoing renovation of the historic Medford Hotel, a 74 unit 6 story apartment building on 0.55 acres.