Estacada planning commission continues Bonnie Meadows hearing after debate over fences and water-quality buffer

At its Feb. 18, 2026 meeting the Estacada Planning Commission heard a public hearing on Subdivision 2025-04-S, a request from developer Lennar to modify two conditions of a 2021 subdivision approval so homeowners could install fences, typical patios and certain landscaping inside a 50-foot water-quality buffer along Sailing Creek and Kern Creek.

Garrett Stevenson, legal counsel for Lennar, told the commission the buffer was not a code-mandated setback but a negotiated condition tied to earlier park dedication, and that the way the condition is currently written “would literally preclude a homeowner from being able to fence in their backyard.” Stevenson said the developer is proposing to build consistent, developer-installed fencing along the property lines and that allowing modest patios or decks would make lots marketable.

Planning staff summarized the application and recommended approval of a narrow modification with three conditions: amend the original conditions to describe permitted fences and landscaping, require a revised subdivision plat within six months, and limit buffer plantings to vegetation native to the Estacada area. Staff planner Alan Wilson explained the application affects 27 lots in Tax Map 34E and confirmed the 10-foot paved pedestrian path is on a city-owned tract (Tract B) adjacent to the private lots; the private buffer extends onto homeowners’ lots by roughly 20–30 feet depending on the lot.

Commissioners and members of the public raised several points of concern. Some commissioners asked whether the shared-use path, which was recorded as part of the plat and paved during site work last year, acts as a berm that could alter flood flows; Public Works representative Don said the area had flooding during a recent event and that flood behavior raised practical questions about future maintenance and home elevations. Others questioned whether permitting landscaping in the buffer would allow changes to topography or fertilizer and plant choices that could worsen runoff to the creek and affect fish habitat.

Stevenson and Lennar representatives countered that erosion-control and stormwater measures included in the lot engineering—swales, stormwater facilities and design standards—will manage lot runoff and that requiring homeowners to plant only an undefined list of “Estacada native” species on a recorded plat note would be unclear and difficult for the city to enforce. He also urged the commission not to place a long-term native-plant requirement on the plat itself, suggesting such an obligation would be better handled as a condition of the planning decision if the commission chose to adopt one.

Given outstanding technical questions about hydrology, maintenance responsibility for the public tract and the enforceability of a plat-level native-plant restriction, the applicant asked the commission to continue the hearing to the next scheduled meeting so staff and Lennar could provide additional maps, flood-hydrology information and clearer planting specifications. A commissioner moved to continue; the motion carried by voice vote. The commission instructed staff to return to the March meeting with clearer lot-level maps, better photos and additional engineering or stormwater analysis to show how fences, patios and landscaping would affect runoff and flood risk.

The hearing was continued; no final decision on the modification was made. The commission noted city council will have the final action when the matter advances beyond the planning recommendation.