School board members discussed negotiations on an agreement with developers during recent virtual session; plan to continue discussions Thursday, March 13, at in-person board meeting
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
In an open house with Portland-based developer Edlen & Co. and locally-based Arkitek and Outlier Construction held for school district employees in late February, the real estate investment firm heard a mix of praise, questions and concerns from those in attendance on the proposed project to build a 90-plus unit housing development in conjunction with nonprofit Sunstone Housing Collaborative, established by two members of the Ashland School Board, at the southeast corner of East Main Street and South Mountain Avenue.
The contract, valued at between $1.75 million and $2.25 million, is under negotiation between Ashland School District and Edlen & Co., with the goal of establishing a Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA) to complete the development at what is currently known as Lincoln Field. Ashland School Board members voted Dec. 19 to move ahead with negotiations with the developer for the project and are currently working on an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) with Edlen.
“That is a document that binds no one to any transaction,” said Matt Edlen, of Edlen & Co. “It binds no one to a purchase price. It has absolutely nothing to do with the disposition of land. It has everything to do with, ‘Hey, we are engaging in a process together and here are the rules of the road.’”
Architect Christopher Brown described accessibility, sustainability and resilience aspects of the design. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
The housing project aims to boost student enrollment that has steadily been in decline and to make it more accessible for district employees to live in the city limits.
Edlen said he and district Superintendent Joseph Hattrick have spoken about the importance of transparency in the process, as well as communication with the public.
“The project as it stands today,” Edlen said, as of Feb. 28, “we have not really advanced beyond the design perspective … largely because we want to take the time for these exact meetings.
“Community-led design is really critical,” he added. “Because at the end of the day … I’m not building it for me.”
Matt Edlen, co-founder of Edlen & Company, a Portland-based developer, reviewed the goals of the project. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
The proposed “attainable housing” development would include ground floor commercial space for a childcare facility and community space, playground, and green spaces in addition to apartments, ranging from studio to three-bedroom housing on the 4.18-acre property. There will be opportunity for rentals and/or ownership, depending on the housing unit, through cooperation with a community land trust.
The housing development is intended for residents earning less than 120% of area median income, with a large share expected to be at 80% or less of the median.
“What does ‘attainable housing’ mean?” asked Edlen. “(H)ousing that works for the full spectrum of the community we live in.”
Edlen noted that the proposed development should fit the community’s wants and needs.
Members of the team selected by the Ashland School Board to design and build a housing complex at Lincoln Field on North Mountain Avenue were at Ashland High School library Friday to talk about the progres the team has made and answer questions from school district staff. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
“We need the key stakeholders at the table, stakeholders like you,” he said. “We want to hear from you and we want to hear from you often.”
Developers heard from community members and school district employees at the gathering,
including from those concerned about the location of the housing development.
Susan Bacon, former executive director of the Ashland Schools Foundation, said that she has rarely seen activities taking place on the 4.18-acre school district owned site. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
Ashland School District employees weigh in on project, location
Brittany Hardy, a teacher at Ashland Middle School, mother of three, and an Ashland resident, voiced several questions to developers and Sunstone officials about the project.
“I love the goals of this project, I love what the project is trying to achieve for the community,” Hardy said.
“I worry that taking resources that have the potential to provide opportunities for kids as far as resources and limiting that resource as a school district,” she said, referencing the site of the project, currently a practice field across North Mountain Avenue from the Ashland High School campus.
“Could we get creative here and serve both purposes … activity spaces for kids and housing?”
As school district superintendent Joseph Hattrick (at left) looks on, Abdiaziz “Abdi” Guled, Ashland High School boy’s soccer coach, commented that he wants the district to keep the field, which is across the street from the high school, and to care for it so it is usable by school teams. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
Krista Palmer, executive director of Sunstone Housing Collaborative, empathized with Hardy’s concerns.
“From a mom to a mom and a person in this community, I feel you,” Palmer said. “The viability of this project — It’s most viable on this piece (of land).
“I know that there’s not going to be a 100% solution,” she added, “for either one of these things.”
Susan Bacon, a 38-year resident of Ashland, said she’s driven by Lincoln Field numerous times a day over the years and was unaware of its use.
“It feels like such a waste of space the way that it currently is,” Bacon said. “It doesn’t feel like it’s a resource that’s necessary ….
“I love seeing the expansion of the housing there,” she added.
Following Bacon’s comments on the field’s use, Abdiaziz “Abdi” Guled, longtime student advocate at Ashland Middle School and Ashland High School boys soccer coach, spoke up to clarify use of the field.
Guled, who has coached soccer for 25 years in Ashland, said there is a big need for soccer teams to use it as a practice field, in addition to baseball using it in the past.
Brittany Hardy, a teacher at Ashland Middle School, had lots of questions for the Sunstone team Feb. 28. Ashland.news photo by Bob Palermini
“That field is really needed for the sake of the kids to have a place that they can work out,” he said.
“It’s a very valuable place, very important for the kids,” he added.
Guled noted he understands the need for housing, but that that location is needed by sports teams.
“I understand that this site was chosen for a lot of reasons with accessibility, but … what other sites were researched?” Hardy also asked developers.
Developer representatives said the only other site deemed a potential fit is located outside the current urban growth boundary (UGB) at Willow Wind Community Learning Center at 1497 East Main St.
Steve Mitzel, a member of the Sunstone board of directors and director of operations at Ashland School District, said the site at Willow Wind is not zoned for the development and that the city did not choose to expand the UGB for the project.
“There’s no other property that we have that is available,” Mitzel said. “The city doesn’t have property available.”
School district notes shortage of readily accessible athletic fields
On a personal note, Mitzel told Ashland.news it took he and his family 17 years to find a home in Ashland, after renting just to be able to stay in the town where he works.
“I’ve always had this passion for attainable housing and just didn’t have a way to sink my teeth into it,” he told Ashland.news following the meeting, until he became a member of the Sunstone board of directors. “This was an avenue for me to get involved and to actually step into it.”
Mitzel, who serves as a liaison between Sunstone and the Ashland School District, told Ashland.news there is a gap when it comes to fields athletes can use in Ashland.
“There’s a shortage of athletic fields that are accessible in our town right now, so there’s a lot of pressure coming to the school district,” Mitzel said. “We are kind of in this new era of facility usage and trying to get our heads wrapped around it.”
Jill Franko, one of two founders of Sunstone and vice-chair of the Ashland School Board, emphasized that if city-owned property were used, it would be a city project, but that Sunstone is a school district project.
She also encouraged those in opposition to the location of the project to look at the broader picture.
Franko sees this project as an opportunity for individuals to look at the broader picture versus what she described as a “scarcity mentality” of “this is being taken away.”
“This is the kind of engagement we want,” Edlen said.
The Q&A session is the first of more planned informational sessions about the project.
School board chair floats field at Lincoln School as alternative to Lincoln Field
School Board Chair Rebecca Dyson told Ashland.news that there are 11 potential soccer fields that could be used alternatively by teams in the school district. The district’s No. 1 choice would be a field at Lincoln School on Beach Street, following up on a promise made to the soccer community on Dec. 19 during a school board meeting. The field is on a 3.73-acre parcel adjacent to the former elementary school.
“That’s a field that is just as close (as Lincoln Field) … you have to cross Siskiyou instead of Mountain Avenue to get to it, but it’s right across the street from the high school,” Dyson told Ashland.news on Feb. 26.
“That’s certainly to us is going to be the most logical solution,” she added. “There’s no parking issues.”
Dyson noted that it will be at least two years until the alternative field would be needed for use by the high school.
“Certainly by then, we can make sure that that field is in better condition and ready to be used,” she said.
The Sunstone project is now expected to break ground in 2027, later than initially planned, according to Dyson.
An open house for the public to meet with developers is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at Ashland High School’s library.
School board members reviewed the negotiating agreement with the developer in a recent virtual work session and will review it again in an upcoming regular session at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 13.
For more information about the project, go to sunstonehc.org.
To read the full text of the negotiating agreement between Sunstone and the developer, click here.
To see the full meeting agenda, click here.
Email Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].
March 13: Information corrected about target market for project residents. Their income will be no more than 120% of of the local area median, with a major share at 80% or below, not 80 to 120% of median income.
March 13: Corrected to say that negotiations on a development agreement are being conducted by Edlen & Co. and Ashland School District, not Edlen & Co. and Sunstone Housing Collaborative.
