Commission OKs rezoning request

A plan for Hope Hospice to build a new administrative office in Medford cleared a hurdle Monday night as city planning commission members gave their approval to a zoning change for a parcel of currently city-owned property on Pep's Drive.

Commission members voted to recommend rezoning a 5.14 acre parcel on Pep's Drive from R3 multi-family use to C1 commercial use. The parcel is being split into Lot 1 1373 Pep's Dr. with 3.75 acres and Lot 2 1383 Pep's Dr. with 2.39 acres. The parcel is located to the south of the recently constructed apartment buildings on Pep's Drive and north of the area that is being developed for single family residential use. The property will abut to the rear of what is being developed for future residential use coming off of the

See COMMISSION on page 4 Pep’s Drive subdivision.

The Hope Hospice office is planned for 1373 Pep’s Drive while the longterm goal is to develop 1383 Pep’s Drive as a future park area. The vote to recommended the change came after a public hearing with no members of the public present or objections filed with the city.

At Monday’s meeting, city planner Bob Christensen explained that they needed to make the zoning change because current zoning codes don’t allow an office building to be built in an R3 zone. He said the codes are more flexible when it comes to parks. While the city could have rezoned it for G1 institutional use, like the other city parks are, Christensen said parks are a permitted use in a C-1 zone. He said it can be rezoned to G1 in the future if it became an issue. The commercial zoning for that parcel also gives the city greater flexibility in the future should there be interest is someone purchasing it for a commercial use. Christensen noted that because the parcels are city owned, any sale of them would have to go through the city council.

“We are leaving it now if anyone wants to develop it, but the goal in the future is to make it into a park,” Christensen said.

In related action, members of the planning commission voted to recommend declaring the rezoned parcels to be “surplus” property.

Christensen explained that anytime the city owns property and it is intended to be sold to general public, it has to be reviewed by the planning commission to see if it is part of the longtime development plan of the city. In the past, when the city had acquired the entire area with the goal of industrial development, the planning commission at that time had declared the property saleable by the city. Monday’s vote by commission members affirmed that previous action.

“I decided to put it back on the agenda to confirm that we recommend it to be considered as surplus and available for sale and future use by a private enterprise,” Christensen said. He said they had gone through the same process when the city created the residential subdivision on the south end of Pep’s Drive.

The rezoning recommendation and surplus land recommendation will go to the full city council for final action later this month.

In other action, Christensen advised committee members that in coming months, they will be looking at creating local rules regarding the minimum size of homes on residential lots. So-called tiny homes have a fraction of the square footage of a typical single family home. The question for the city is if these should be allowed in existing residential areas or if there should be restrictions. Some communities have addressed this by mandating minimum widths for homes or minimum square footage of the ground floor. Christensen said the commission will begin discussion of this in the next year.