Roseburg Council to Decide Whether to Keep Exploring Downtown Parking Lots for Urban Campground

The Roseburg City Council will decide Monday whether staff should continue exploring the Phillips and Shalimar parking lots as possible sites for an urban campground.

The city has not selected either lot or approved a campground. Staff is asking Council to define what kind of site it wants evaluated before the city spends more time on land use review, operating plans, and detailed cost estimates.

Preliminary layouts show that the Phillips Lot could accommodate about 41 spaces measuring 10 feet by 10 feet, with five-foot aisles, portable restrooms, and a dumpster area. The Shalimar Lot could accommodate about 23 similarly sized spaces. Staff estimates fencing would cost approximately $12,000 at Phillips and $8,200 at Shalimar. It also obtained a preliminary quote of $78,180, including delivery, for an accessible three-stall shower trailer.

Those layouts do not settle how either site would operate. Staff wants direction on whether Council envisions tents or small structures, whether a provider would manage the site, what amenities and security would be required, who could stay there, how long the use would last, and how operations would be funded.

Both lots are within the city’s downtown exclusion zone. According to the agenda packet, using either property as a campground would require suspending that zone. Staff also says a campground on either commercially zoned lot would require a conditional use permit. The Planning Commission would initially decide that application after a public hearing, with opportunities for appeal.

Staff estimates that hiring an independent land use consultant to prepare and present a permit application would cost $30,000 to $35,000, excluding a possible appeal to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. The city would be both the property owner and the reviewing jurisdiction, which is why staff recommends an outside consultant.

For context, the packet includes a 2024 estimate for a different site and operating model: roughly $56,450 per month to run a managed campground and about $251,000 in startup costs. Staff cautions that the figures are outdated and that current costs would likely be higher. No current operating budget for the two downtown lots has been established.

Council’s choices Monday are to discontinue the evaluation, request more information, or direct staff to develop a proposal and bring it back before implementation. Even the third option would not, by itself, open a campground.