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Council directs six-month pilot for Aura to manage Ashland's dusk-to-dawn night lawn
Summary
The Ashland City Council directed staff to negotiate a six-month service agreement for Aura to manage the city's dusk-to-dawn camping lawn at its current location and to schedule council discussions during the pilot to shape a long-term plan.
The Ashland City Council on July 20 directed staff to negotiate a six-month pilot agreement with Aura to manage the city's dusk-to-dawn "night lawn" at its current location.
Sabrina, a city staff member, told the council the city convened partners including Aura, Rogue Retreat and Access to explore managed-site options and recommended a short pilot "to learn what that would look like and what that would take." She described the arrangement as a professional service agreement and said staff will work with Aura "on an agreement, what that management would look like and what the cost of that would be" before bringing it back to the council.
Council members stressed the pilot must not become a permanent status quo without a parallel process for a long-term solution. "My hope is that we can actually maybe move forward with this, but at the same time, alongside that, be having discussions amongst ourselves about what that looks like," Councillor Bloom said, urging council-led follow-up and formalization of policy elements before the pilot concludes.
Public commenters who use the Nightlawn urged care-first management rather than policing and flagged immediate safety needs. Rich Rody of Southern Oregon Housing for All told the council the site has been "as many as 45 people," exceeding cited standards for the lawn size and posing fire and health risks; multiple speakers described heat-related medical events. In response, staff emphasized existing on-site services (dumpster, porta potties, potable water, potential weekly health services) and said additional infrastructure is not yet budgeted for the pilot.
The council's direction tasks staff to proceed with negotiating the Aura service agreement and to schedule a series of council discussions during the pilot to develop operational standards, site-location options and a long-term management model. Staff also said it will estimate pilot costs and severe-weather shelter operating needs ahead of the winter season.
