Medford council advances land-use efforts

The Medford City Council voted Thursday to send its work on the Regional Problem Solving Plan to county planners for study, another step in a decade-long project that will determine how the region will grow over the next 50 years.

The Council voted unanimously to turn Medford's work on the plan over to Jackson County planners, who will look at it along with growth plans created by the Rogue Valley's larger towns.

The plan did take some heat from local farmers and land-use watchdogs before the vote.

"I'm concerned about losing a critical mass of good farmland," Nancy Vaughn said.

Vaughn's family has farmed a 155-acre plot of land just north of Jacksonville since 1902.

Vaughn is concerned that the plan calls for too much farmland to be included in the plan's urban reserves, which are lands just outside cities' limits. The plan calls for cities to grow first into their urban growth boundaries before pushing into urban reserves.

The RPS process is intended to allow cities to coordinate their growth and preserve spaces between cities. It originally involved seven cities and the county, but Jacksonville dropped out of the planning.

Vaughn said the plan could impinge on the area's growing market for locally produced food.

"If we lose our good farmland, we can't get it back," she said. "Our first choices to build on shouldn't have the soil most conducive to farming."

The cities now propose to add about 8,500 acres of land for growth, of which 1,200 acres is considered prime farmland.

If the cities and counties sign off on the plan by next spring, state approval could come by the summer of 2011.

Lesley Adams, who works for Rogue River Keeper, cited studies saying urban sprawl could pollute important river and streams used by salmon.

"The plan eats up too much farmland and basically ignores area transportation development," Adams said.

Other speakers included Medford residents concerned about traffic and the potential loss of farmland.

Councilman Al Densmore and Mayor Gary Wheeler addressed some of the testimony by suggesting the plan is not intended to direct city growth into farmland as a first option.

"Just because we designate some land as urban reserve doesn't mean if we exceed our urban growth boundaries we will destroy farmland," Densmore said.

Densmore said the plan is flexible and could be altered depending on future problems the region might face.

Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 541-776-4471; or e-mail him at cconrad@mailtribune.com.