News Archive

Oregon’s 2022 short legislative session ended on Friday, March 4, lasting just a few weeks. We want to highlight and celebrate the passage of some important new legislation in the land use, affordable housing, and environmental sustainability realms: Providing Funding for the Oregon Agricultural Heritage Program: Grants to Keep Working Farms and Ranches in Sustainable Production […]

Josephine County, Oregon––Rogue Advocates and 1000 Friends of Oregon have appealed a Josephine County land use decision to re-designate and rezone nearly 90 acres of forest land to rural residential to allow a residential subdivision with 5-acre minimum parcel sizes. Over 15,500 acres in Josephine County have already been re-designated as non-resource lands, with local […]

Ashland, OR. As a result of Rogue Advocates’ successful May 2021 appeal of the Grand Terrace annexation, the City of Ashland was forced to acknowledge the multitude of ways in which the annexation’s approval violated the City’s laws. But rather than require that the applicant conform to Ashland’s annexation code––which mandates that newly-annexed areas provide “safe […]

**2/14/22 UPDATE: The bill is dead after not passing out of Committee! Still check out the post below to learn about the types of threats our land use planning system faces. HB 4118 bypasses Oregon’s land use planning processes and inappropriately pits farmland against affordable housing. House Bill (HB) 4118 allows private landowners to request […]

Josephine County Parks (JCP) is pursuing plans to upgrade Whitehorse County Park, a quiet park along the Rogue River located on land zoned Exclusive Farm (EF) just outside of Grants Pass. The upgrade involves for paving over significant portions of the park and removing almost 350 trees in order to accommodate 20 RV sites and […]

Rogue Advocates submitted public comment in advance of the December 17 meeting on the latest draft rules developed for the Land Conservation and Development Commission’s (LCDC) Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities Rulemaking. The comments urge LCDC to ensure that its final rule reflects the urgency and severity of the climate crisis and corrects Oregon’s historic failure to meet its GHG emission reduction goals.    Governor Kate Brown’s Executive Order […]

Become a Master Climate Protector! Register today for Southern Oregon Climate Action Now’s 7th annual course starting on February 9, 2022. This is a 10-week course, held on Zoom every Wednesday from 6-9 pm. This course is limited to the first 20 participants; tuition payment guarantees your seat! Visit https://socanmcp.eco/ to learn more and sign up! Modeled […]

Guest Opinion published in the Mail Tribune on September 6, 2021. Gov. Kate Brown recently appeared on CNN saying, “Climate change is here, it’s real and it’s like a hammer hitting us in the head — and we have to take action.” Brown then singled out her recent signing of a “clean energy bill” (HB […]

Join SOCAN’s Ashland Climate Action Project next Thursday from 7-8:30pm via Zoom for a special event: “Rethinking Streets: Lessons for Ashland” where they will be discussing community safety, health, climate, affordability, equity, and more. The free event is being hosted by the Ashland Climate Action Project and the Ashland Bicycle Advocacy Group. Join the conversation […]

Pepper Trail, Vice President Rogue Advocates, and Craig Anderson, Land Use Program Manager, were interviewed by the Jefferson Exchange about the Ashland Annexation appeal on July 8, 2021. Listen to the recorded interview here: Jefferson Exchange Public Radio Jefferson Public Radio wrote: “The Rogue Valley needs more affordable housing, and Ashland acutely so. But when […]

Article by Damian Mann published in Ashland Tidings on June 11, 2021. The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals recently rejected a zone change by Jackson County commissioners that could have opened the door to widespread development of rural properties. “It is difficult if not impossible to understand what findings the Board of Commissioners relied […]

Written by Jimmy MacLeod. Published in the Mail Tribune on Jun 10, 2021. Is public safety “tinsel on a tree”? With little discussion, despite a hearings record of over 1,000 pages, the Ashland City Council unanimously approved the “Grand Terrace” annexation in December last year. As envisioned by the developer, the annexation would have resulted […]