By Kiera Morgan

The Lincoln City Council received an update on the Villages at Cascade Head from Planning Director Richard Townsend. He explained that the Fernwood area has a road in and utilities and is ready for development. Townsend said they are now looking at ways to market the development of the property. The Maplewood area is being developed and will offer 16 units of housing.

There is also areas that have been set aside for open space. Townsend explained what the city has available and some of the development challenges. “Exclusive of the open space areas there are areas that could be made available for development at some point, about 346 acres that the city owns. There is another 42 acres that are owned by other property owners that they could develop.” Townsend added “there are also constraints on the property including existing wetlands, streams and steep hillsides that could create some very challenging

development situations.” He added that the sewer lines right now only serve the Maplewood and Fernwood areas. “In other spaces it only goes up to where a gravity feed is possible.” He said there is a full waterline however to the area. Townsend pointed out that the existing plan for the Villages was approved in 1998. That plan included 1829 dwelling units on it.

He said economic expectations however have changed and they are working on putting together a new master plan for the Villages. He told the council that the original plan was for there to be several independent villages within the space. The idea is to put it out on the market bit by bit to recover the cities investment and provide more housing opportunities for citizens while also maintaining the open space areas.