OWN: Community

Envisioned and developed by Madeline Hill who still lives here, Mountain Meadows is a community for active 55+ adults. We own our homes and shared resources, governed by an owners association. Our owners association contracts for facilities management, dining room services and landscaping. As owners we retain equity in the homes we live in and enjoy. There is no controlling corporation or buy-in fee. With our non-profit status, all income in excess of expenses is reinvested in the community.

We own and govern our community

Mountain Meadows is special and unique because we own our homes and the community’s shared resources, and through our homeowners association board, we govern our own affairs.

The vision for Mountain Meadows

Planning for Mountain Meadows began in the early 1990s. Senior-living specialist Madeline Hill developed a vision for the kind of planned community for active adults in which she and her husband would enjoy living. The community would focus on concepts of community relationships, resident ownership and self-governance.

Initial development

After assembling a team of architects, community planners and site designers who grasped her objectives, Hill undertook to develop her vision in 1996 on 27 acres of rolling hillsides just north of downtown Ashland. As homes were designed and built to a variety of plans, they were sold to individual residents. This group of owners in turn became the Mountain Meadows Owners Association. Madeline and Hunter Hill are still residents and active in the community.

The homes in our community

Our 226 properties, currently home to nearly 300 residents, vary in styles and floor plans, and include low-rise condominium buildings, multi-unit dwellings in condominium clusters, and independently owned houses.

Awards and recognition

In 1999, soon after the community was established, it was voted America’s Best Small Active Retirement Community by the National Council on Senior Housing. And in 2019, the Best Retirement Destinations website ranked Mountain Meadows number one among best retirement communities in Oregon. (www.bestretirementdestinations.com)