Encore (A Special Report): If You're Thinking Of Retiring In ... --- Drama in the Hills: The town of Ashland , Ore. , has mountains, Shakespeare and a debate about growth

By Christine Larson

24 March 2003
The Wall Street Journal

IN ASHLAND , ORE. , there's much ado about almost everything.

Take the ginkgo tree. When the local library planned an expansion that involved uprooting a septuagenarian tree, an uproar ensued. A protester planted himself in neighboring branches. A letter war was waged in the local paper. Champions of progress upheld the library renovation.

In the end, the tree lovers lost. Just when the next tempest will occur is anyone's guess.

"Just when you think things are settled, it starts all over again," says Del Thompson, a 68-year-old retired high-school counselor who moved to Ashland in 1999 from Fremont , Calif. His wife Lydia , 65, a former third-grade teacher, puts it more gently. "There's a lovely diversity of thought here," she says.

Indeed, diversity is a hallmark of this town of 20,000 people in southwestern Oregon . Home to the 175-acre campus of Southern Oregon University as well as the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland provides numerous artistic and intellectual activities. It also offers a picturesque mountain setting and abundant outdoor pursuits and, like all of Oregon , has no sales tax.

Those same features, though, are also responsible for one of Ashland 's biggest headaches: growing numbers of visitors and transplants. Tourists -- an estimated 360,000 a year -- begin flooding the town's streets each spring, crowding into shops, restaurants and theaters. And housing prices have jumped about 65% on average in five years.

"Affordable housing is the biggest issue we're facing right now," says John McLaughlin, the town's director of community development.

Debate about Ashland 's growth now plays out regularly in City Council meetings and the local newspaper. (One letter to the editor of the Ashland Daily Tidings last year described the town simply as "overpriced, overrun and overrated.") For the moment, though, the area's assets continue to attract retirees and others looking to combine the pastoral with the cu lt ural.

"I can catch a steelhead in the river or a trout in the lakes, come home and garden in the afternoon, and go to a nice restaurant and a show at night," says Gary Farnham, 59, a retired physician who moved to Ashland with his wife, Coralie, 57, from Atherton , Calif. , in 1998.

A walk down East Main Street, the heart of Ashland , offers a glimpse of the variety of people drawn to the town. Funky-earthy coffee shops and natural-food cafes frequented by shaggy students give way to international boutiques and gourmet food shops catering to tourists as the street approaches Ashland 's physical and emotional center, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's three theaters.

Ashland has drawn Shakespeare lovers since a teacher at Southern Oregon University's forerunner founded the festival in 1935. Today, the festival has one of the country's largest classical repertory theater companies, with a season that runs from March through October. Eleven plays are produced each year, fewer than half of them written by Shakespeare; the others extend from Euripides to Chekhov to Edward Albee to David Mamet.

Paul and Gini Frost happened upon Ashland in June 1999, during an extended trip out west from Minnesota . With an open week in their schedule, they enrolled in a one-week course at Southern Oregon University sponsored by Elderhostel (the Boston-based educational program for older adu lt s) that focused on Shakespeare. When the course ended, the Frosts returned home and put their house on the market; they moved to Ashland six months later.

"To some extent, it was the Shakespeare festival" that prompted the sudden decision, says Mr. Frost, 76. "But it was primarily the beauty of the area, and we like small towns."

Since moving to Ashland , Mrs. Frost, 73, has continued to frequent the university, taking art-history courses through Southern Oregon Learning in Retirement, another senior-oriented education program. Between Elderhostel, the university courses and other senior programs, retirees have a big presence on campus. Some 2,200 of these seniors mix with 5,000 undergraduates in a given year.

The fact that the Frosts and others manage to find Ashland is something of an accomplishment. A lt hough the town is directly off Interstate Highway 5, the main West Coast artery running from Me xico to Canada , it isn't an easy place to get to. Only three airlines (United Express, America West and Horizon) serve the regional airport, and the two nearest cities with populations of more than 100,000 -- Eugene, Ore., and Sacramento, Calif. -- are three and five hours away, respectively, by car.

For many, though, Ashland 's remote location is a plus. Much of the outdoor recreation is focused on the Siskiyou Mountains to the south and west, the Cascades to the east and the Rogue River 30 miles away. "There's downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, rafting, canoeing, kayaking and road biking all close by," says Mrs. Farnham, the California transplant.

Like many of their friends and neighbors, the Farnhams have planted a vineyard on their five acres. The region's cool, damp winters and hot, dry summers are well-suited for wine growing, and four commercial wineries lie in the surrounding hills.

A typical winter brings eight inches of snow, most of the region's annual rainfall of about 19 inches, and plenty of sunless days. "We don't mind the gray days; we love to nestle down and read," says Mrs. Thompson, the retired teacher. "But we have plenty of friends who just have to get away someplace where they can see the sun."

Ashland 's combination of cu lt ural and recreational activities periodically lands the town on lists of top retirement destinations. Housing prices began surging in 1999, the year that the National Council on Seniors' Housing named a local retirement development, Mountain Me adows, as "Best Small Active Adu lt Retirement Community in America ." Today, the average price for a home in Ashland , where many of the houses are of historic Craftsman or Victorian vintage, is about $290,000, or about 65% more than five years ago.

Indeed, the influx of moneyed retirees has pushed many local workers out of town. Ashland is assessing housing needs over the next 20 years and has created a land trust to acquire property for affordable housing.

The City Council has attempted to keep Ashland 's growth under control. A limit on the size of retail establishments has kept out big chains, and part of the local 5% tax on restaurant meals goes to developing green space within city limits.

Me anwhile, city planners have worked hard to make sure Ashland , small and rural as it is, offers high-end technological capabilities. The city owns and operates a high-speed data network, the Ashland Fiber Network. "Twenty years ago, to retire in a small town would have been a lot more difficu lt , but with the Internet, we're more connected than we would be," Dr. Farnham says.

There are plenty of local connections as well. Monthly meetings of Ashland 's informal Newcomer's Club typically draw 30 to 40 people. Gourmet groups, hiking clubs and book groups abound, as do volunteer activities. Nearly 600 people, about three-quarters of them retired, volunteer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

"We go out to events half a dozen times a week, and still don't scratch the surface," says Dr. Farnham. "We have to make a date not to do anything."

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Ms. Larson is a writer in Sacramento , Calif. She can be reached at encore@wsj.com.