Ashland housing project moves slowly toward approval

Dec. 19—A proposed multifamily housing complex along Highway 99 in Ashland that would include over 200 apartments is moving slowly through the approval process after having been stymied for two years by legal challenges.

Ashland City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposal Tuesday on second reading after approving it on first reading Dec. 6.

"What we're trying to do, we're trying to build for a market that's what you call the middle market," said Bob Kendrick, the developer behind the project called Grand Terrace. "You've got your market rents, and you've got your affordable rents. We have not built anything for the middle, which is your essential workers and your retirees and younger family members — older children moving out of the house and have nowhere to go, they have to move out of town."

The Grand Terrace project, which calls for 230 one-bedroom apartments, would be spread across 10 buildings at 1511 Highway 99 North, a wedge of hillside land above and behind Anderson's Auto Body and Paradise Supply.

Rent for the apartments would be under Housing and Urban Development standards — all within 80% to 100% of the median income, Kendrick said. Pathways throughout the complex would be wheelchair accessible.

Grand Terrace would use a new form of construction for Kendrick — the buildings would be prebuilt in modular pieces, then trucked in and assembled on site.

"We can stand one building up in five days," he said.

Kendrick's plans include a transportation plaza on Highway 99 in front of the apartments and a crosswalk with flashing beacons leading to a stop across the highway. He said he is working on an arrangement with Rogue Valley Transportation District that would provide tenants with $10 monthly bus passes.

"It'll add $400,000 in property tax; it will help decrease school bond payments; it'll add $2 million in system development fees. It'll help add improvements along Highway 99 and eliminate 390 car trips annually," Kendrick said in a Dec. 6 presentation to Ashland City Council.

Matthew Havniear, housing recovery director for the Jackson County Community Long-Term Recovery Group, spoke in favor of Grand Terrace at the council meeting.

"It's pretty common practice for case managers to come up with a second choice when families say they want to live in Ashland," he said of the city's housing shortage.

"It's disheartening to sit in a case manager session with a family, and say I hear you: I appreciate that you want to live in Ashland because that's where you work or go to school, but what's your next choice?"

Preliminary plans for the development were approved by the Ashland Community Development Department in October, and by the council Dec. 6.

If the council approves the project again Dec. 20, another multistep process would begin to annex the land for the project, said Derek Severson, senior planner at Ashland Community Development. The land is outside Ashland city limits.

Kendrick first proposed the project in 2019. After the city approved it, Rogue Advocates, a nonprofit land-use organization, appealed the decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, which overturned Ashland's approval.

"This is right after the Almeda Fire; we lost thousands of homes; we were all ready to go, and they stopped the project," Kendrick said.

The board of appeals sided with the nonprofit because of an inflexible facet of Ashland city code, Severson explained. Street improvements associated with an annexation can't have any exceptions. The Grand Terrace project is seeking exceptions for a mandatory sidewalk project.

"Annexations typically involve streets that remain in the county or the state's jurisdiction. There are criteria that say if there are existing sidewalks within a quarter mile, the applicant is responsible for connecting the sidewalk system," he said.

"Mr. Kendrick's gone beyond that standard, and he's gone both directions, not just connecting into the city's system; he's also proposing to connect with the nearest sidewalk in the county," he said.

Ashland's street code dictates that streets be designed in a specific format — lanes for cars, then bike lanes, a planting strip with street trees on the edge of the curb, then the sidewalk for pedestrians, Severson explained.

The area proposed to be paved by Kendrick is bedeviled with ditches, steep slopes and territory controlled by Oregon Department of Transportation, which has its own rules for street and sidewalk construction. Then there's the bus stop and its pullout lane, further complicating adherence to Ashland's street requirements.

The city of Ashland responded to the board of appeals decision by rewriting that section of code in 2020 because the rule would prevent any development in that section of the highway, Severson said. Developments annexed by the city can now obtain exceptions if they prove insurmountable difficulties in conforming to the standards.

"You changed the rules, we get it, to appease this developer. But you're still out of compliance," said Craig Anderson, president of Rogue Advocates.

"Rogue Advocates is absolutely supportive of affordable housing. But where it goes, and how it goes in, is also important to look at," said Rogue Advocates Vice President Steve Rouse.

Rogue Advocates has sustained three major complaints against the development: traffic safety, the proposed sidewalk installations and the claim the apartments will be workforce housing.

"Adding over 200 apartments with well over 200 people driving in and out of one driveway, lanes in either direction with congested traffic — it's an accident waiting to happen," Rouse said.

Rouse submitted a letter to Ashland development officials in October describing his own experience driving that stretch of highway with cars speeding and jockeying for position. He said the model used to create the traffic studies for the development were incapable of reflecting the complexities of real-life traffic.

In a series of social media posts the past two years, Anderson encouraged Ashland residents to oppose the development, often in personal terms.

"There's sort of me the person, and me the president of Rogue Advocates," Anderson said.

He described his online behavior toward Kendrick and the development as being carried away by his passion for responsible land management and the city of Ashland. He said he has been at working on reining in the emotion that can come with that passion.

"Bob and I actually met for coffee a couple weeks ago, and we talked for a long time. I still don't competently agree with him, but he's got some good ideas," Anderson said.

Kendrick confirmed the coffee meeting but described it differently.

"I have been trying to talk to him for several months, and he finally agreed. After two hours of talking at Noble, we didn't get anywhere, and he said he was still going to appeal the development if I didn't pull the application," Kendrick said.

Anderson confirmed he anticipates Rogue Advocates will appeal an approval from Ashland City Council.

"We have substantial materials from a licensed transportation engineer who looked at this (development) and provided a traffic impact analysis; there's a supplemental memo, then there's a safety analysis," Severson said.

Severson described Grand Terrace as a kind of realization of a new future for Ashland.

"This property was identified in the comprehensive plan that was adopted in the '80s to accommodate multifamily housing; it's not like Mr. Kendrick is proposing something completely out of line — it's within the vision that the city has had for that property for 40 years," he said.

Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.