12 Jan Mountain Meadows: Pavilion Place condos, Great Oaks and Plum Ridge neighborhoods
Streets of Mountain Meadows Retirement Community, Part 4.
Pavilion Place condos, Plum Ridge Drive, Nandina Street, Mariposa Court, Satsuma Court, Great Oaks Drive.
Part of the North Mountain Neighborhood Plan.
34 photos.
Published January 2026.
Mountain Meadows expanded to the WEST side of North Mountain Avenue.
The original 22 acres of Mountain Meadows retirement community were all on the east side of North Mountain Avenue, from Nepenthe Drive to Interstate 5. As that planned development was built and began to fill with residents in the late 1990s, Mountain Meadows was expanded by about seven acres to the west side of North Mountain Avenue. Later in this photo essay, I’ll describe how these seven acres fit into the larger 53-acre North Mountain Neighborhood Plan.
This photo essay covers the condos of three-story Pavilion Place on the east side, then the west side expansion of Mountain Meadows to the Plum Ridge and Great Oaks neighborhoods.
Pavilion Place; also Mountain Meadows volunteering
Pavilion Place is a 36-unit, three story condominium on the north end of Mountain Meadows. You’ll find it at the corner of Mountain Meadows Drive and Skylark Place. I had the pleasure of a knowledgeable and enthusiastic introduction to Pavilion Place by Lee Fishel. Lee and his wife moved here more than seven years ago.
Have you ever had one of those times when you put up your hand to help with something, and before you knew it you end up being in charge? That’s what happened to Lee. As Lee explained to me, each condo association at Mountain Meadows has its own elected board. So there is a board responsible for maintenance, repairs, etc. that is specific to Pavilion Place. After living here several years, Lee agreed to serve on that board – then to be the Vice President of that board. I think you know where this is going. A year later he was President of the Pavilion Place board.
As I briefly mentioned in my June 2025 “Mountain Meadows: An Overview” photo essay: “Owners [at Mountain Meadows] elect a Board of Directors, which oversees a professional management company hired to provide day-to-day management of the facilities, services and grounds.” This board is responsible for the entire community.
It may not surprise you that Lee is now on the community-wide Mountain Meadows board as well. I mention his board service for two reasons. First is that he is very qualified to help me (and you) learn more about Pavilion Place and Mountain Meadows as a whole. Second, it is important to remember that volunteers do a lot of the work of keeping our community functioning, and hopefully thriving. Not only at Mountain Meadows. That’s also the case for the City of Ashland, where volunteers help weave the fabric of town and create annual events we all love. As one who has been a community volunteer for most of the 35 years I have lived in Ashland, I salute the thousands of you who each find a personal way to step up for the community and for each other.
Pavilion Place layout
The 36 homes in Pavilion Place are built in a square shape around a central courtyard. In warmer months of the year, the courtyard is a gathering place for residents. It’s a place for barbecues and small gatherings that helps create a neighborhood feeling within this small complex. There is even an annual all-residents potluck and barbecue where updates to City of Ashland emergency procedures are shared.
The ground level of Pavilion Place is mostly used for car parking and storage units, with one or two levels of condos above. The homes are not “cookie-cutter apartments.” They vary in size and layout: from about 850 square feet to about 1,900 square feet, either one, two or three bedrooms. Most of the homes have windows that face out to the street and also into the courtyard.
“Designed for people to age in place”
As I listened to Lee Fishel describe Pavilion Place, I heard similar themes to those Madeline Hill used as she described her Mountain Meadows vision to me. One major theme is that the homes at Mountain Meadows “are designed for people to age in place.” That is why almost every home is on one level, whether it is a single family home or part of a two or three story condo building. Lee mentioned that dishwashers are raised off the floor for ease of use, one of many small but significant ways to make aging in place practical, more than just a slogan.
Plum Ridge and Great Oaks neighborhoods
The Plum Ridge and Great Oaks neighborhoods are part of Mountain Meadows built, as mentioned above, on the west side of North Mountain Avenue. Stimulated by the development of Mountain Meadows throughout the 1990s, these streets are part of a larger North Mountain Neighborhood Plan created by the City of Ashland in the mid 1990s, and approved by the City Council in 1997. The plan guided development of about 53 acres on the west side of North Mountain Avenue, between Interstate-5 and Bear Creek.
Street connections
In this photo essay, I am only including homes within the Mountain Meadows community. As you can see if you walk the neighborhood, the streets of Mountain Meadows in this photo essay merge into and connect with local streets of other small neighborhoods within the larger North Mountain Neighborhood Plan area.
When I was a citizen volunteer involved with transportation planning in the 1990s, I learned that the Ashland community and the Planning Department prefer to build what is called “traditional neighborhood street elements.” These are pedestrian and bicycle friendly neighborhood streets that are connected, so you don’t have to get on a busy main road to travel from one neighborhood to another. If you are a visual person, think of it this way: fewer cul de sacs, more local street connections.
The North Mountain Plan laid out this vision in 1997. Now, nearly 30 years later in the mid 2020s, as the last vacant property is being developed for houses, you can see the vision of connected streets come to life.
Three street connection examples
The south end of Plum Ridge Drive begins in Mountain Meadows, then passes through the Meadowbrook Park development to its north end at Fair Oaks Avenue. Nandina Street in Mountain Meadows will connect with Nandina Street in the Kestrel Park development, through the property currently (in 2026) being developed. Mountain Meadows Drive will also connect, through the property being developed, with Nandina Street.
I’ll show you photos of these street connections as we visit the individual streets below, as I also share photo highlights of artistic details on each street that caught my eye.
Plum Ridge Drive
The Mountain Meadows homes on Plum Ridge Drive were built between 2000 and 2004. It connects with many of the other streets in this neighborhood. For perspective, I’ll begin with a photo taken outside of Mountain Meadows. I took the first photo where Plum Ridge Drive meets Fair Oaks Avenue, looking south on the six-block-long street. The rest of these Plum Ridge Drive photos focus on house highlights within Mountain Meadows.
Nandina Street
Nandina Street is an instructive example of the City of Ashland planning for street connections in advance. Nandina Street began as part of Mountain Meadows in 2001, just one short block of homes off Plum Ridge Drive. As KDA Homes built Kestrel Park subdivision homes in the early 2020s, the city asked them to name the new street heading uphill “Nandina Street.” At the time, the street ended at a vacant lot. Now, in 2026, as that vacant lot is being developed for more housing, the upper and lower sections of Nandina Street will join to form one street.
Mariposa Court
Mariposa Court is a short block, with only two addresses on the street. However, Mariposa Court offers alley access to properties on neighboring streets.
Satsuma Court
Satsuma Court has only one address, a condo home built in 2000. As with Mariposa Court, it also serves as an alley access – in this case for homes that face North Mountain Avenue and Plum Ridge Drive.
Great Oaks Drive
Homes on Great Oaks Drive were the first to be built as part of Mountain Meadows expanding to this side of North Mountain Avenue, between 1998 and 2000. Mature trees give the short, semi-circular street a cozy feeling, and a path leads from the street to Bear Creek.
I wrote a full photo essay about Great Oaks Drive in the summer of 2022, full of intriguing stories from the residents to accompany beautiful photos.
Here is a link to read that photo essay.
Writing this photo essay, I walked Great Oaks Drive in the winter – December 2025. Here are a couple of new photos, plus a comparison of the lush street trees in the summer and winter.
Mountain Meadows Drive, the “west end”
The “dramatic” part of Mountain Meadows Drive begins at the main entrance to the Mountain Meadows community, then heads east from North Mountain Avenue. It goes by most of the “jazziest” parts of Mountain Meadows, such as Madeline Hill Park, the three large Parkside Condominiums, the Mountain Meadows Clubhouse with dining room and fitness center, and finally ends by Pavilion Place, where we began this photo essay.
But Mountain Meadows Drive also heads west from North Mountain Avenue, through the Great Oaks residential neighborhood. It currently comes to a dead end after three blocks, but that will be changing soon. As part of the new 2026 development I described above, the street will now connect with Nandina Street.
Here are a few photos of the west side of Mountain Meadows Drive.
Wrap-up
This is my fifth photo essay about the Mountain Meadows retirement community, one of the many “treasures” in the town of Ashland. I plan to publish one more photo essay focusing on the parks and community gardens of the community, as well as Kitchen Creek flowing through.
See below for links to the other Mountain Meadows photo essays.
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